Teams Qualify for Upcoming National Championships

NEWTON, CONNECTICUT - Young sporting clay shooters from across Arizona earned state titles – with many qualifying to represent Arizona at upcoming national championships – at last weekend’s Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) Commissioner’s Cup Sporting Clays State Championship.

The competition was held March 29 at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility and featured some of Arizona’s top young shooters in five divisions: varsity, junior varsity, intermediate advanced, intermediate entry and rookie.

SCTP, for youths in grades 12 and under, is a program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, managed in partnership with the national governing bodies for shooting sports: USA Shooting, Amateur Trapshooting Association, National Skeet Shooting Association and National Sporting Clays Association.

With remarkable growth over the past eight years, the program is considered “the Little League of shooting sports.” Some 8,000 to 9,000 students from over 45 states are expected to compete this year.

Arizona teams participating in the state title shoot qualified for the SCTP National Championships, July 31-Aug. 5 at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta, Ill.

The best of these young shooters could be selected to attend an Olympic development camp in Colorado Springs, and some will go on to compete at the collegiate level.

For more information, visit www.nssf.org/sctp.

RESULTS

SCTP Arizona Sporting Clays State Championship
(held March 29 at Ben Avery Shooting Facility, Phoenix)

Varsity (grades 9 to 12)
1st Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 227 out of 300 targets (Nicholas Warren of Cave Creek, Lucas Feringa of Glendale, Beau Bonner of Cave Creek).
2nd Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 217 (Brett Hoeppner of Cave Creek, Kimberly Peters of Surprise, Lane Shank of Phoenix).
3rd Place—Red Mountain Target Terminators, 215 (Kyle Wandelear of Queen Creek, Correy Schultz of Gilbert, Kaitlyn Borie of Phoenix).

Junior Varsity (grades 9 to 12)
1st Place—Red Mountain Target Terminators, 248 out of 300 targets (Wesley Borie of Phoenix, Kyle Johnson of Phoenix, Luke McCabe-O’Donnell of Phoenix).
2nd Place—Red Mountain Target Terminators, 230 (Quinton Moore of Gilbert, Kyle Sutter of Apache Junction, Christopher Vansickle of Glendale).
3rd Place—Tucson SCTP Shooting Stars, 208 (Gregory Moffett of Oro Valley, Jacob Roussard of Tucson, Aaron White of Tucson).

Intermediate Advanced (grades 6 to
1st Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 245 out of 300 targets (Tanner Bissell of Desert Hills, Holden Huff of Scottsdale, Perry Miller of Goodyear).
2nd Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 229 (Austin Elbert of Waddell, John Heim of Glendale, Shelby Shank of Phoenix).
3rd Place—Tucson SCTP Shooting Stars, 205 (Louis “Taz” Gloria of Tucson, Perry Kurker-Mraz of Tucson, Daniel McCloskey of Tucson).

Intermediate Entry (grades 6 to
1st Place—Red Mountain Target Terminators, 209 out of 300 targets (Stephen Fuller of Phoenix, Kent Thomas of Mesa, Zachary McBee of Gilbert).
2nd Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 171 (Van Brophy of Phoenix, Andre Guzman of Peoria, Lynnsee Starr of Glendale).
3rd Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 142 (Dylan Karvanek of Anthem, Taylor Saunders of New River, Paysen Unger of Phoenix).

Rookie (grades 5 and under)
1st Place—Ben Avery Clay Crushers, 167 out of 300 targets (Casey Coleman of Peoria, Mitchell Jones of Glendale, Tyler Sims of Dewey).
2nd Place—Tucson SCTP Shooting Stars, 135 (Ben Garrett of Tucson, Gunnar Johnson of Sahuarita, Ausin Keene of Tucson).
3rd Place—White Mountain Clay Crushers, 129 (Logan Barton of Pinetop, Austin Moore of Heber, Luke Hughes of Lakeside).

Through the Don’t Lie for the Other Guy program, the firearms industry assists the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in educating firearms retailers on techniques to detect and deter illegal gun purchases and at the same time warns the public of the serious consequences of a “lie and buy.”
This Thursday, the program comes to Georgia where it will kick off with a press conference in Atlanta attended by ATF Director Carl J. Truscott, Gov. Sonny Perdue, Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias and NSSF. Don’t Lie for the Other Guy operates on a $750,000 grant from the Department of Justice with additional funding provided by the firearms industry.
For more information on what this ATF and industry partnership is doing to thwart illegal straw purchases, visit www.dontlie.org.

In a recent column, ESPNOutdoors.com associate editor Brian Lynn heads back to hunter safety school, noting some drastic changes in the 20 years since he obtained his hunter’s certification. Lynn points out that many of these changes, including added convenience for prospective hunters, are what are needed to recruit newcomers.
He points to an online hunter education course available from the International Hunter Education Association. The course was developed with $1 million sponsorship from NSSF.