My name is Bill Duncan and I am the new Delegate for the State of Illinois. As you know, Lauren Mueller has taken a new job as the Executive Director of WSRC in Sparta. She is also getting married in September. Life has caught up to Lauren and she no longer felt she could be a Delegate. Thanks for your service, Lauren. I will do my best to make you proud as I take over.
First, let me say how excited and humbled I am to be your Delegate. I promise every Illinois Shooter I will do the best job that I can. To do this, I am going to ask for your help. Please feel free to contact me any time you have questions and concerns. This way I will know what you want the ATA to be doing for Illinois and you.
Illinois is blessed to have 18 All Americans and 4 Captains for their respective categories. They are: Chase Horton - Open First Team; Lauren Mueller, Elise Baker and Hannah Martin - Lady I First Team; Reagan Armburst - Lady I Second Team; Janice Rigler - Lady II First Team; Sue Staley - Lady II Second Team; Ian Lawrence - Junior; Garrett Helms - Junior Gold; Brian Hezel - Sub Vet First Team; Frank Haynes, Dan Staker and Dave Dressler - Sub Vet Second Team; Frank Payne - Veteran Second Team; Mike Westjohn and Charlie Bickle - Senior Vet First Team; Ziggy Thaczenko and Larry Norton - Chair Shooter. Chase Horton, Ian Lawrence, Mike Westjohn and Ziggy Thaczenko are Captains of their categories. Good shooting one and all. You have made all the rest of us in Illinois proud.
If you shoot 20,000 or more targets in a target year, you are a mega target member. Illinois has seven. They are: Todd Whitaker, Lawrence Gillum, Mike Dennis, Mike Walker, Leland Hassler, Garrett Helms and Marvin Kuebler. Great work guys! If any of you would like to adopt me and take me shooting, give me a call.
Sadly, I have to report the passing of four gentlemen: John Evans, Randy Cornmesser, Robert Burg and Chuck Mellott. They have all lived and shot in Illinois through the years. Rest well men. Break lots of 100 straights in Heaven.
You can contact me at
Bill Duncan, IL ATA Delegate
Hello Shooters!
Wanted to start with a few reminders: the board is working hard at getting the IL Hall of Fame (HOF) building going! They are going to start a GoFundMe page for anyone who is interested in donating. If you don't have the money but want to help, it will require a lot of labor to get it built! Ask your director how you can help! I've been getting a lot of questions about the dates for the 2020 state shoots. The AIM state shoot will be June 13 & 14 and the ISTA state shoot will be June 15-21. Tickets will be sold at the classification counter the 13-21 for the Kolar shotgun for the Gun Club Fund raffle that will be drawn at the Grand. If you want any ahead of the state shoot, contact Bill Duncan or Joan Davis, ISTA Secretary. They are $20 per ticket.
As many of you have heard, I did fill the Executive Director position for the WSRC. I started mid-January. Because there would be a conflict of interest and I'm going to have a lot on my plate, I decided to resign from the IL Delegate position. Bill Duncan was the 2nd alternate for the position, so he will be stepping up and taking on the role. That being said, this will be my last article. I want to thank all of you for the support along the way! I truly enjoyed my time and will still see you around at the shoots!
Lauren Mueller, Former ATA Delegate
and WSRC Executive Director
Hello shooters!
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Now that it's a new year, it's time to revisit your goals from last year. Did you reach a couple small goals? If so, congratulations! If not, were they too much? Did you not try as hard as you could have? Whatever the problem may have been, it's time to evaluate. Set a couple small, achievable goals that will help you reach your long-term goal and keep working at it. Don't be afraid to reach for the stars for the long-term, but remember there are a lot of steps you'll have to take to get there.
One goal I heard was reached was that Jason Hassler broke his 25,000th singles target. That takes a lot of dedication to the sport and a big milestone he can check off his list! Congratulations!
The ISTA Board is still looking for donations for the Hall of Fame Building. They are looking at more affordable means to get the building costs down. If you made it through Christmas and still are in the giving mood, let one of your ISTA Directors know and they will get the money to the right place!
Don't be afraid to reach out with any questions or comments about what's going on at your club. You can email me at
Happy Shooting!
Lauren Mueller, ATA Delegate
Hello shooters!
I've had a lot of people contacting me about the state shoot dates for next year. The High School League state shoot will be May 30 (and possibly the 31). The AIM state shoot will be June 13 & 14. The Illinois State Trap Shoot will be June 15-21. I will put out more information about them as it gets closer.
We are still looking for donations for the ISTA HOF building. We are going to add it to the registration building at Brittany Shooting Park. We are trying to get more donations before we break ground. The board members are working on getting a final blueprint ready and are very close!
I would now like to announce the 2019 Illinois State Team. Just a reminder, there are 3 requirements for making the team: shoot the HAA at the Illinois state shoot, shoot all 400 targets at one of the 3 state zone shoots, and meet target requirements that vary by category (you can find them on the All-State Team page of the state shoot program). The category you declare at the state shoot determines what team you are on. For the Men's team: Captain (and highest combined average in the state of Illinois) Chase Horton (96.76), Randy Miller (96.05), Jeremiah Schultz (94.42), Mike Dennis (93.73), Brad Bomkamp (93.07), Kevin Wunder (92.50), Michael Hathaway (92.25), Mark Fielder (92.20), Brian Cox (91.61) and Mark Chiodini (88.85). Lady 1: Captain: Lauren Mueller (94.16) and Chloe Turasky (89.98). Lady 2: Captain: Janice Rigler (89.42); Anita Knearem (87.72); Sue Staker (83.95) and Lora Murphy (82.12). Sub Junior: Captain: Steven Margherio (93.30); Landon Dent (93.02); Samuel Gilman (91.78); Logan Hawkins (91.08) and Braxton Dent (88.34). Junior: Captain: Hayden Hemrich (92.91); Cole Gordon (91.59); Kameron Martin (89.75); Blake Harnetiaux (89.71) and Blaine Jennings (88.38). There were no Junior Gold shooters that qualified this year. Sub Vet: Captain: Frank Haynes (94.54); Brian Hezel (94.38); Dan Staker (93.79); Harvey Schultz (93.03) and Dave Dressler (92.97). Veteran: Captain: Tim Marucco (94.05); Frank Payne (93.43); Ron Wolf (92.52); Alan Maly (90.33) and Jim Lyons (90.26). Senior Vet: Captain: Mike Westjohn (93.72); Charles Bickle (93.27); Mike Jordan (93.09); Michael Obert (90.78) and Terry Miller (90.51). Chair Shooter: Captain: Ziggy Tkaczenko (89.45) and Larry Norton (89.31). Congratulations everyone!
Lauren Mueller, ATA Delegate
Hello shooters!
I write to you after the completion of the ATA Central Zone Shoot. There were 10 locations across the Midwest competing for trophies. Brittany was the "winning-est" club, winning 24 of the 96 trophies offered for the weekend. Good job shooters!
While I'm on the subject of Zone shoots, the Illinois Northern Zone shoot is going to be in Downer's Grove on September 7 & 8. If you are wanting to qualify for the state team, this will be one of your zone requirements. You can get it in early, or catch the Central and Southern zones in May. They will be throwing 200 singles on the 7th and 100 doubles and 100 handicap respectively on the 8th. See you there!
While I was up in Wisconsin, a score sheet came in with a 100 straight from the 27 yard line... I cannot tell you how excited I was to see that it was our very own Ian Lawrence! He completed his grand slam on Friday's handicap event. What a huge accomplishment. Randy Miller broke his 75,000th handicap target at the ATA central zone shoot at Brittany in July. Tim Marucco broke his 50,000th handicap target in July at Rend Lake, on top of winning the 400 bird handicap event.
We are still looking for donations to break ground on building the new ISTA HOF building. We can't do it without your help!
With it being a new target year, don't forget to renew your ISTA membership. You can go to any gun club in the state for one of their registered shoots and purchase one. Now is also the time to set goals for your new target year. Decide on short-term goals for yourself and revisit your long-term goals to see how it's coming along.
Please don't hesitate to keep me updated on accomplishments at your club! I'd love to hear about peoples' firsts and their big wins. Send them to me at
Good luck and see you on the line!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate