Shooters Set New Personal Records

FORT BENNING, GA. – The Hellgate Civilian Shooters set new individual personal records and placed sixth and 11th as a team at the Army Junior Nationals in Fort Benning, Ga. the first weekend in February. With three seniors on the team this year, Head Coach Trace Weisenburger said the shooters continue to improve and he looks forward to going to the Civilian Marksmanship Program National Championships again this summer.

The Hellgate Civilian Shooters were invited to Fort Benning, Ga. the first weekend in February to shoot at the Army Junior Nationals. They qualified by shooting a postal match at their home range. The targets where mailed in and scored by the Army Marksmanship Unit. They were ranked sixth of the 30 teams invited from the United States.

The first day, Feb. 3, they shot with 22 other teams in the Smallbore 3X20 Match. They shot 20 shots in three positions: prone, off hand and kneeling. The targets were at 50 meters versus 50 feet, the distance they are used to shooting.

"This makes it a little harder because you have that much more distance for stuff to go wrong," said Head Coach Trace Weisenburger.

Texas Hill Country won the match. The Hellgate Civilian Shooters ranked sixth as a team.

Of the 600 possible points and 107 shooters, Kristen Hemphill of Texas Hill Country had the top score shooting a 576.

Senior Ibby Lorentz led the Hellgate Civilian Shooters with a score of 552 finishing 32nd. Sophomore Sam Weisenburger shot a personal best with a score of 550 coming in second for the team and 34th overall. Senior Alex Weisenburger finished 39th with a score of 548. Junior Jonna Warnken finished 41st with a 548 and sophomore Libby Diller shot a 538 placing 55th in the match.

"Our kids didn't do all that well at small bore but we shoot a lot more air rifle three position than we do small bore," said Weisenburger.

On the second and third days of the competition they shot a standing off hand air rifle match.

Out of 127 shooters, Lorentz ranked 16th shooting 611 out of 654 total points on both days. This was only six points from first place on the first day of the air rifle and nine points from first on the second day.

Warnken shot 596 on the first day and a new personal best on the second day shooting a 602. She placed 47th.

Alex placed 51st with a 594 on day one and her personal best, a 602, on day two.

"It's awesome to see the kids shoot their personal best at big matches like this. It really shows the talent come through," said Coach Weisenburger.

Diller ranked 81st shooting a 588 and 585. Sam showed huge improvement on day 2 improving his score by 18 points for a 589. He ranked 99th.

The Hellgate Civilian Shooters placed 11th for the match with the National Training Center Team winning the two-day event.

"We are a better three position team where we shoot prone, standing and kneeling. With just shooting off hand, we are weak in off hand. When it comes to our nationals where we shoot three position we will be ranked in the top two or three teams in the U.S.," said Weisenburger.

Weisenburger explained that they practice more three position because those are the matches they can travel to. They are also hoping to win nationals this year.

"Very few matches are just standing, off hand but since they got invited we went," said Weisenburger.

The Hellgate Civilian Shooters have matches every weekend. They will host a small bore open match at their range in Bonner Feb. 17 starting at 9 a.m. They head to Bozeman the last weekend in February for the USA Junior Olympics Three Position Air Rifle.

Lorentz and Warnken were two of the 25 shooters out of 400 shooters that made the first cut for the American Legion National Championship. They will shoot another postal match at their home range in the next couple of weeks. If they are in the top 15 they will compete in Colorado Springs, Colo. in July. Lorentz competed in the match two years ago and placed third in the nation.

Weisenburger said despite only practicing twice a week, all the shooters continue to improve each match. He looks forward to taking his three seniors Lorentz, McDonald and Alex to the CMP National Championships in Ohio with the team one more time this summer.

 

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