The Hillsdale College shotgun team earned a victory at the Michigan Trapshooting Association’s Fall Team Shoot on Sept. 13. They won with a score of 487 clay targets hit out of a possible 500.
“This is an excellent win for the Hillsdale shotgun sports team because they competed against not just other students, but the best shooters from the Great Lakes region,” said Bart Spieth, range master at the John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Education Center at Hillsdale College.
The five-man team, consisting of four juniors and one sophomore, shot the best out of over 500 participants at MTA’s 41st running of the shoot, in Mason, Michigan. The shoot was an open-entry competition, meaning the Hillsdale team shot against shooters who will likely not shoot against them for the remainder of the season. All on the team, however, agree that there is room for some improvement.
“We definitely could’ve done better,” junior Kie Kababik said. “We had a very rough start. We missed eight out of the first 125. We need to start better.”
The team and Spieth added that the windy weather played a critical role in the shoot.
“In addition to the competition, the team overcame harsh, windy conditions to secure this victory,” Spieth said.
Junior Ian Dupre said that he wants to work on his mental game for the next shoot, which head coach Mike Carl said was his main focus for the team as a whole.
“For these guys, at their level of competition, it’s all about the mental game now,” Carl said. “Two years ago, a squad with a few of those guys shot 495 out of 500 in Kentucky so I would say that with the quality of guys that we have… there’s always room for improvement.”
The Hillsdale shotgun team will go on to compete against other colleges at the Division III level, which include Schreiner University, Midland University, University of Kentucky, and Purdue University.
The team identified Schreiner as their closest rival because Schreiner was the closest to beating them last year at the D-III Association of College Unions International National Shooting Team Championship. Hillsdale’s team has won the D-III ACUI national championship for the past two years.
The team will next shoot at the ACUI regional shoot in St. Louis, Missouri, this weekend.