Senior Ida Brown practices at Halter Shooting Center. Courtesy | Matt Muller
The Hillsdale shotgun team has had a busy past few weeks, competing in Sparta, Illinois, Oct. 13-15 and San Antonio, Texas, Oct. 21-29.
The ACUI/SCTP Fall Central Midwest Conference Championships in Sparta ended with Hillsdale winning the highest overall team score. In San Antonio, at the National Sporting Clays Championship, team members earned high scores across the board.
“We had Columbus, Sparta, and San Antonio in three weekends,” sophomore Leif Andersen said. “It was a lot. I’m behind on my class work by quite a bit, but slowly catching up.”
The World Shooting and Recreation Complex hosted the Midwest conference championships, where Hillsdale beat longtime rival Lindenwood University. Twenty-four colleges and more than 300 athletes competed in the largest collegiate clay target match of the year, with six separate rounds of American trap, American skeet, sporting clays, trap doubles, skeet doubles, and super sporting.
“The worst part about Sparta is that it’s basically in the middle of nowhere,” head coach Jordan Hintz said. “There’s no lodging, there’s not much for places to eat. The facility itself is massive, it’s arguably the biggest shotgun shooting facility in the country. This is the biggest conference championship that they’ve ever had for collegiate shooting.”
Sophomore Davis Hay earned first men’s highest overall with a score of 433/450, while fifth-year senior Ida Brown earned first women’s highest overall with a score of 428/450.
“Traveling with the team has been great,” freshman Madeline Corbin said. “I was really excited to go to Sparta. It is such a huge shooting complex.”
In San Antonio, Hillsdale athletes scored high in the main event category. The National Shooting Complex hosted 1,822 shooters respectively.
“I really enjoy the weather and the targets in San Antonio,” Andersen said. “It is always 90 degrees and sunny. The target setters do a really good job of setting very difficult courses. I don’t like the sand though. Everywhere you go is sand, sand, sand. I can’t imagine how anyone could live or grow stuff on that god-forsaken sand.”
Hintz broke 239/250 targets in the master class category, while junior Josh Corbin hit 234/250 in the AA category. Andersen scored 232/250 in the B category, and Hay hit 236/250 in the C category.
“I felt that I didn’t perform exceptionally well in Texas,” Andersen said. “We shot five courses, and I feel that I did well on two of them. I think the whole team was a little disappointed in our performance, but we were all pretty tired and worn down from the constant travel. It was a great opportunity for us, and I think we got some very good practice in Texas.”
In the women’s division, Brown broke 211/250 targets, while senior Jessica Strasser hit 209/250.
“I don’t know that we will be able to do things much different than we have done this fall,” Hintz said. “We’ve shown at back-to-back competitions that the strategy that we’re using is not hurting us. There’s not really much to go against in trap and skeet, but there definitely is always room to improve in sporting clays.”
