Hello shooters!
What a grand this year! It ended up being up about 4%. It was awesome seeing IL all over the leaderboard! I went through and counted all the trophies that IL took home this year, and I counted 199! That's incredible! 91 different shooters took home trophies! The big winners were Ziggy Tkaczenko (20 trophies), Chase Horton (15 trophies), Larry Norton (11 trophies), Lauren Mueller (11 trophies), Tony Fortino (10 trophies) and Ian Lawrence (7 trophies). The weather was awesome and the target setting was some of the best I've seen out there. The staff all worked hard, the grounds looked good and there wasn't much to complain about. Hope you all had as good of a time as I did.
There have been some rule changes to start the 2019 target year. One big one is that there will no longer be an 18 yard line. It was voted on at the Grand and starting September 1, those who were at the 18 will be punched to the 19. Those of you at the 18 should have been notified through the mail. That being said, the 1 yard between posts for squadding has been taken out too. Now, it reads "2 yards on adjacent posts and 3 yards in the squad for ALL yardages." The ATA has also eliminated the money punches. All yardage punches will be based on score now. Scores of 100 will get at least 1.5 yards, scores of 99, 98 and 97 will be at least 1 yard, and a score of 96 will be at least a half yard (unless they get more based on the yardage table).
The next article I will hopefully be able to announce the state team, so be looking for that!
Happy shooting!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
Hello shooters!
The new target year is just beginning! Don't put your guns away too soon, we still have a few big events! Labor Day Weekend (Sept 1-3), the Illini Indians Pow Wow is held at Brittany Shooting Park. The Northern Zone Shoot is September 8 & 9 at Downer's Grove Sportsman's Club. The weather is beautiful and it's a great club to start out the target year. It will also count as your zone shoot to meet the requirements for the State Team.
I saw several of you out traveling to different state shoots the past few weeks and I enjoyed seeing your names on the trophy lists! A big congratuations to Mike Obert for breaking his 100,000th doubles target in Minnesota. I went and helped put on the Kentucky, Wisconsin and Indiana state shoots. A few notable mentions: in Kentucky, Alex York broke his 3rd and 4th 100 straight in doubles (after breaking his 1st ever a month prior at our state shoot)! In Wisconsin, Chase Horton left with 9 trophies - 2 of the events he had the high non-resident score! In Indiana, Ian Lawrence took home 8 trophies with one event he had non-resident high score!
I look forward to writing in the next article about the big winners from the grand!
Happy Shooting!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
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
Hey shooters!
The 2018 Illinois Central Zone shoot was held at Peoria Skeet and Trap Club on May 12 & 13 in order not to coincide with the US Open. After a rainy start to Saturday, the singles event was down 38 shooters with 86 taking the line. Even a short rain delay couldn't deter Dave Dressler from finishing on top with a 197. Sunday's weather was much better with a cloudy morning giving way to a very sunny Mother's Day. All ladies present were given a rose as a Thank You for attending on THEIR day! The doubles event was down 30 shooters from 2016 with only 47 participants. Dan Roberts took top honors with a 96. Handicap was also down with only 79 shooters. Rick Liggett turned in a 98 from the 18.5 yard line to take the Champion honors. HOA was won by Dan Roberts with Leland Hassler taking Out of Zone honors.
The 2018 IL Southern Zone Shoot was held at Brittany Shooting Park on May 26 & 27. The weather was beautiful! A little on the warm side, but much better than the weather we've had for the last few months. There was one storm that we thought would make its way in, but we lucked out and it remained just north of us. There were 126 entries for the singles, 72 for the doubles and 81 for the handicap. There were 3 199s on Saturday - Lauren Mueller, Mike Jordan and Mike Hathaway. Mueller came out on top after two rounds in the shoot off. Mueller also was the lone 99 on Sunday's doubles for the Champion honors. On the handicap, Brady Cox broke his first 100 straight ever! Quite the accomplishment, especially on one of the toughest events! Mueller won Champion for the HAA in zone and Tal Seger took Out of Zone Champ.
There are a couple other honorable mentions - Elise Baker broke a 98 from the 25.5 yard line in Linn Creek for the Handicap Championship to make it to the 27 yard line! She then proceded to go to the Great Lakes Grand in Michigan and broke another 98 to claim Champion of the event the following week. Ian Lawrence had a great show up there as well - he was tied for HOA Champion and Singles Champion! Chloe Turasky broke 100 in handicap from the 19 yard line and won Champion at Menard County Sportsman Club. Everyone keep up the awesome shooting and I'll see you either at the ATA Central Zone Shoot July 26-29 or in Sparta for the Grand!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
Hello shooters!
It's State Shoot time! Last year, we had several shooters make it to the 27 for the first time, gave out several 100 straight pins for the first time someone broke 100 at our State Shoot, and numerous people were telling me they had shot the best scores they had for a while. Let's keep that tradition going! I've checked trophy lists from a few of the bigger shoots this year and some of you have been on fire. Thanks again for representing the State of Illinois across the map and reminding them that we have some of the toughest shooters in the country!
If you haven't gotten a chance yet, be sure to check out the improved website (illinoistrapshooters.org)! The board has been working on tweaking and finding the best way to disseminate information. Look for some changes in the near future! You can also find the monthly delegate report on there as well. If you haven't yet, you can "like" the ISTA page on Facebook with the tag @IllinoisTrapshooters and get some more information there. Also, the Illinois Hall of Fame is now a 501c3. They are still looking for funds to help build the building. It will be built onto the west side of the ISTA building. If you would like to make a donation, contact any of the directors. Every bit helps!
Hope to write your name in the next article when I mention the champions! Good luck shooters!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate