Manchester’s “Young Guns” Trap Team Medals at State and Travels to Nationals
First Row: (left to right) Marisa Linski, Logan Luckhardt, Dave Childs, Kurtis Blumenauer Logen Alxea, Evan Trott, Ryan Fields, Nick Schmidt, Morgan Blaine,Lillian St. Charles, Kale Gardinier
Second Row: (left to right) Luke Childs, Justin Walz, Christian Marotz, Cody Wacker, Brandon Edman, Daniel Reeves, Dan Childs, Isaac Eversole, and Noah Langbehn
Missing: Gloria Arbogast, Joseph Grebe, Gabe Damon, Roy Mclennan, Konrad Hahne. Photo courtesy of Mike Hughes.
Fourth of July weekend means travel to our favorite vacation spot for many of us, but this year, for twenty Manchester youths, it meant travel to Mason, Michigan. As members of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP), Manchester’s trap shooting team headed to Mason, home of “The Michigan State Trapshooters Association” for the 2014 SCTP State Trap Championship competition, in which approximately 128 youngsters competed for medals, trophies, and prizes.
Shooting started at 9:00AM after the playing of “The Star Spangled Banner”. The Manchester group did very well, with two first and one third place finishers.
The Junior Varsity squad came in third place, with a final total score of 690 out of 1000 (143 short of first place). Logan Alexa, Evan Trott, Daniel Reeves, Nick Schmidt, and Morgan Blaine led the team.
Kurtis Blumenauer, David Childs, Ryan Fields, Lillian St. Charles, and Logan Luckhardt competed in what is called an “Open Class”. The Open Class permits the coach to take youngsters from various divisions within the team to build a competition-eligible squad. This was the first year medals were awarded in this class. The final score for Manchester’s Open Class squad was 789. Kurtis and Ryan each shot a perfect round of 25!
Michael Hughes, SCTP Trap Coach, stated that the most exciting chain of events of the day came when Manchester’s varsity squad — Dan Childs, Luke Childs, Brandon Edman, Cody Wacker, and Christian Marotz — scored a total of 908, with Dan shooting 3 straight 25’s and Dave and Luke each shooting a perfect 25 as well. Manchester and Harper Creek were tied for first place.
This would normally result in a shootoff to determine the winner, but there was a complication. Hughes explained “One of our athletes went home, thus I was thinking we would get second place as we could not field a team. But, Harper Creek had a youngster that went home also.” The shootoff was back on, four against four.
Hughes said the SCTP trap shootoff was really “a sight to see.” The athletes shot from the same position as in regular competition, but with an empty post on both sides. Additional spotters came on to help. When the shooting was finished, both coaches reviewed the scoring to determine the winner. Manchester’s team missed 3 birds out of 100. 3 shooters missed only a single bird apiece and the fourth shooter, Luke, hit all 25 targets. Harper Creek missed 10 birds. Manchester took first place!
A week and a half later, eight trap shooters, Coach Hughes, and parents headed to Sparta, IL for the SCTP Nationals. A team of five Senior Varsity shooters — comprised of Dave, Dan, & Luke Childs, Brandon Edman, and Cody Wacker — shot a final score of 908 out of 1000 targets. This is the same score that they shot at the Michigan State Trap Shoot, but at State the score was sufficient to win first place, whereas at Nationals it garnered them 53rd place.
Daniel Reeves, Nick Schmidt, and Logan Alexa (the remaining shooters) had final individual scores of 170 (out of 200), 173, and 161, respectively. They knew they could not win any medals, as they were 2 shooters short of forming a competitive squad, but went for the experience and fun of attending Nationals.
Congratulations to Manchester’s Trap team for their impressive performances at State and Nationals!
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