The Hillsdale College Action Shooting team took first in the centerfire optics category of the Scholastic Action Shooting Program College Nationals in Talladega, Alabama.
Last week’s win represents the third year in a row of bringing home a national title. The team’s A and B squads placed second and third in both the centerfire and 1911 pistol divisions, narrowly losing to rival Texas A&M University’s Corp of Cadets Marksmanship Unit.
“We haven’t been especially focused on optics, it’s kind of easier to transition from iron sights to optics,” junior Joseph Grohs said. “When you have iron sights, you have your rear sights, you have your front sight post, and then you have the target. So your brain is trying to work three different things at the same time. When you go to the red dot, you’d have a dot and then you have the target. So it’s less cognitive load.”
While the college has a variety of shooting teams, the action shooting discipline focuses on speed, with time added for each target missed. Competitive categories are created based on the firearm’s model and type of sights used.
“The industry and shooting sports are going toward red dots,” Grohs said. “They’re a lot more affordable, they’re a lot more reliable, and they’re more fun because you can shoot faster.”
In addition to Hillsdale placing first in the centerfire optics category, senior and Army veteran Zechariah Steiger won the individual national title with a time of 41.46. He also took second in the nation in the 1911 category with a time of 44.4, and third in centerfire with a time of 45.76 seconds.
Other notable wins in the men’s category include senior Adam Bentley’s third-place finish in centerfire optics, with a time of 45.76 seconds. Junior William Hudson competed in all three categories, earning third in the 1911 category with a time of 47.42 seconds, fifth in centerfire optic (47.61), and fifth in centerfire (51.52).
The Chargers took two medals in the women’s division, with sophomore Christina Lewis placing third in the centerfire category with a time of 65.6 seconds, and freshman Kayla Mullin in third in the 1911 category with a time of 82.72 seconds.
According to sophomore Grohs, the team competed well considering their head coach Adam Burlew was unable to come to Talladega due to a family emergency. Burlew is normally responsible for final practices and strategizing, as well as getting snacks and water, and signing everyone into the facility.
“I’m a little bit older, so I’ve kind of taken on the team manager role,” Grohs said. “And then, Coach Burlew had a family emergency so I took over the whole show down there. That was a big swing in the mental game for me.”
Assistant coach Michael “Doc” Sweeney stepped in to drive the team eight hours south, and also assisted in administrative tasks Burlew would normally complete.
“We all stepped up,” junior Taylor Chen said. “Like if someone had a bad run or a bad stage, we made sure to be encouraging. One of the things I’ve been studying is positive reinforcement. We can make fun of each other a lot, but we really stepped up and focused on the good stuff, like, ‘You did that well,’ instead of ‘That was trash, don’t do that again.’”
The team practices at the range three times a week, and is expected to complete one hour of dry fire drills on days when there’s no practice.
“It’s definitely a time commitment for sure, but I mean, it’s a varsity sport,” freshman Kayla Grace Mullins said. “I’m grateful I have that connection to get to know them because otherwise I wouldn’t. None of them are freshmen, none of them are in my classes. So I wouldn’t have made any of these connections if not for the team.”
The team has been sponsored by Springfield Armory since 2019, which provides XD-Ms, XD-M Elites, and 1911 pistols.
“I think that we have a really good crew,” Grohs said. “We are a team, not just like a group of people that go and do the same hobby, which is generally kind of how stuff goes with shooting sports is kind of a bunch of hobbyists that work together. This is not just a flash in the pan.”
The team has plans to expand its national presence next season. This September, the John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Center will host the first-ever U.S. Practical Shooting Association Collegiate Championship.