The Chargers experienced mixed results at the 2022 National Sporting Clays Championship.

The event was held in San Antonio, Texas, the weekend of Oct. 22, by the National Sporting Clay Association. Other notable schools in attendance included Schreiner University, Emmanuel College, and Texas A&M.

“Texas weather at the end of October is nice,” head coach Jordan Hintz said. “The National Shooting Complex is very interesting both in layout and location. It is right off a packed road and in the middle of a bunch of neighborhoods.”

While the team’s high overall score was lower than average at 1146, it allowed for valuable practice.

“Sporting clays has been where we’ve needed the most work,” Hintz said. “We don’t have any student-athletes that really specialized in it in high school and it is the most difficult game to train for. It was only the first or second time for any of them at a tournament of that caliber.”

Sophomores Gavin Drill and Jonathan Calabrese, both with a C ranking, finished near the top of their class despite team difficulties. Drill, who is from Elko New Market, Minnesota, scored a 232.

“In San Antonio I definitely had some good and bad rounds,” Drill said. “One of the sporting clays courses that I did well on was probably the toughest there. My approach and attitude to the difficult targets helped me perform well.”

Calabrese, who is from Reed City, Michigan, scored 229.

“Coaching from Jordan taught me specific techniques to break difficult targets like the ones thrown at San Antonio,” Drill said. “As long as I stuck to my plan, I was able to make the difficult targets much easier.”

Other team scores include senior Ida Brown’s 231, junior Jessica Strasser’s 228, and sophomore Joshua Corbin’s 242.

“This event is the best practice that we can get,” Hintz said. “It is an opportunity to shoot some tough targets with the highest level of sporting clays competitors and spend time at the facility where we compete at ACUI Nationals.”