The shotgun team’s spring season begins this weekend at a small competition in Missouri. From March 21st through the 26th they will compete at the Annual Association of College Unions International (ACUI) Nationals in San Antonio, Texas.
“This weekend is exciting because it’s our first team shoot after last semester,” sophomore Jessica Strasser said. “We’ve done some smaller competitions since the fall season ended but so far this spring semester we haven’t done anything where the whole team has traveled together.”
According to Head Coach Jordan Hintz, the spring season is focused on preparing for nationals.
“The big goal for the spring season is to go down to nationals and bring some hardware home,” said Hintz.
The team will continue to prioritize sporting clays during practices in an effort to improve from the fall season, according to Hintz.
“It’s always sporting clays. That’s really where we’ve got the most ground to make up,” Hintz said. “By far that’s been the biggest focus this year and going forward. I can’t really see that changing. Especially when we’re shooting as well as we are in trap and skeet, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a lot of time in those other than at a maintenance level.”
According to Hintz, the team’s scores in American Trap and American Skeet were fantastic this fall.
“We definitely want to keep the momentum going in those events,” Hintz said.
According to Strasser, the team practices three days a week for two hours but they often practice around seven to nine hours each week.
“It’s always more time in the spring because we have to shovel off all the fields and there’s a lot of loading,” senior Thomas Rodgers said. “We have to check all the stations for the load of targets.”
According to Rodgers, the team is getting back to team lifts where they work out together.
“Before Covid, we lifted twice a week and were also required to have study tables twice a week,” Rodgers said.
According to Strasser, the team will leave for nationals after spring break and will miss the first week of classes after the break.
“We always stay at the college over spring break and we practice every day leading up to nationals,” Strasser said. “We currently have six practices before nationals.”
After nationals, the team’s season is over, according to Rodgers.
“It’s a lot of pressure but then you just get it over with and get to relax for the rest of the rest of the semester,” Rodgers said.
According to Strasser, the team is excited for nationals but also nervous because it will be their first time competing as a division two team.
“We’ve always been a division three team,” Rodgers said. “Divisions are purely based on size. We’re at a disadvantage because we only have 11 shooters traveling to San Antonio and we will be competing against teams who have up to 20 shooters.”
According to Rodgers, teams with more shooters will have more shooting opportunities as well as shooters who specialize specifically in one event.
The team has gone as far as they can in Division III, according to Rodgers.
“We’re seven-time Division III national champions so we don’t have any more ground to gain in Division III,” Rodgers said. “Division II is where we need to go. Division II trophies mean way more than Division III trophies. Everyone’s going Division II or Division I so that’s where we need to be as well.”
According to Strasser, the team is strong and should do well at nationals.
“I think we’ll be okay at nationals because we are a much better team with the freshmen we got this year,” said Strasser. “The freshmen are crazy good. So even though we’re at a disadvantage, we are better than we’ve ever been during my time on the team.”
The team’s plan is to stay in Division II, according to Strasser.
“We’re not just going to do it and see how it goes but we want to become a Division II team,” said Strasser. “We want more people to come to Hillsdale and shoot.
According to Rodgers, the team is looking for prospective members who can shoot well and also are strong students.
“Hopefully, with more recruiting in the future we’ll be able to fill our team up more and have at least 13 to 15 shooters to be more competitive in Division II,” Rodgers said.
