Hello, shooters! We had a huge jump in attendance this year for the high school league. There were over 500 shooters, and we had about 380 people attending the state shoot (last year we had about 170). There was a little bit of a storm at one point, but that didn't stop the shooters from excelling. There are many schools looking into joining for this coming year as well, so we're looking forward to it jumping in size again. It's a great program that gets more shooters involved in the sport and it lets them letter in their high school as well. If you are interested in getting your high school involved, go to usaclaytarget.com for more information.
The U.S. Open was up 27% this year. I wasn't able to attend because it was the same weekend as the high school league state shoot, but I was watching scores and there were some big ones. Illinois was well represented on the trophy list.
We also had a big storm come through for the AIM State Shoot. There were 294 shooters who participated this year (about 40 more than last year), and everyone got to register only 100 targets due to weather. Gavin Rynders and Britta Moyer each broke their first 100 straights. The singles champion after shootoff was Kyle Blankenship with 100. The doubles champion was Noah Nolen with 98. The handicap champion, with his first-ever 100 straight, was Logan Hawkins. The high-over-all champion was Nolen with 290.
For the ISTA State Shoot, several highlights occurred throughout the week: for Friday's handicap, we had 51 people on our punch list. A couple people made it to the 27 for the first time: Kyle Blankenship and Hannah Martin. Hannah also wowed the crowd by not missing a singles target the entire week, including her first 200 straight on championship day. She went on to be the first lady to win the singles championship over the field. What a feat! Dale Miller broke his first 200 straight in the Singles Championship as well. Josh Taylor broke his first 200 straight, which completed his ATA Grand Slam. Habe (father) and Bubba (son) Darr came to the state shoot for the first time, and Habe broke his first ever 100 straight on the squad right next to Bubba, who broke his first 200 straight. Rodney Johnson had his first 100 straight at the state shoot. Alex York broke his first 100 in doubles. Joan Davis got her first 50 straight ever. Kelly Kinder fired at his 300,000th combined registered target.
Mike Walker recently registered his 300,000th singles target and Regan Armbrust her 25,000th singles.
Doubles champion was Chase Horton with 99. The handicap was won by Dan Staker with 99. Dan also won the all-around with 396. Dave Dressler was high-over-all champion with 1,162.
Just a reminder: if you won a category trophy in the Singles Championship, be sure to shoot at the Grand in the Champion of Champions event. If you are not able to participate, let me know (
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate