The Hillsdale College shotgun team traveled to central Ohio last weekend to prepare for the upcoming Collegiate National Championship in March. The team competed at Eagle’s Nest Sporting Grounds in Mount Gilead, Ohio, on Sunday.
The competition allowed many of the members to break new ground in their shooting careers by not only shooting competitive sporting clays, but also Fédération Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportive de Chasse and American Field Sporting. These two variations on sporting clays provided a different, and often beneficial, way to approach clay target shooting according to the team.
“By shooting these variants, we can gain a better knowledge of the sporting clays game as a whole, which will only help us next month,” junior Anthony LaMacchia said.
While these two sporting clays variants will not be present at the national level, their similarity and basis in sporting clays makes them difficult enough to be good training events for the team.
“I’ve shot a lot of FITASC outside of my shooting with the team, and I think it is a great way to sharpen your skills, not only with the gun in your hands, but with your eyes and mental processing as well,” LaMacchia said.
Overall, the Chargers performed well in the FITASC event. Freshman Jessica Strasser won the ladies division, junior Thomas Rodgers tied for second place in B class, senior Barrett Moore took first in C class, and LaMacchia took first in AA class.
Freshman Will Stuart, who tied for second in the American Field Sporting event, noted the similarities of the two variants to traditional sporting clays and their benefit to the team’s training.
“The targets were definitely harder than many other sporting clays competitions I’ve shot recently,” Stuart said. “I think that will definitely help us get used to different target presentations going into nationals.”
The Chargers will host the 2021 Hillsdale College Shotgun Invitational at the Halter Shooting Sports Center on March 6, inviting other collegiate teams and high school students to shoot American trap and five-stand events. They will then compete in the SCTP College National Championship at the Cardinal Center in Marengo, Ohio, from March 18-21, and the ACUI Collegiate Clay Target Nationals at the national Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas, March 25-27.
“As far as this past weekend went, we shot well, and I think that’s a good sign,” head coach Jordan Hintz said. “At this point in time, I believe we’ve got a good chance of going down to Ohio and Texas and putting up really good scores.”