Senior Leif Andersen at a meet last season.
Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletic Department
Five freshmen joined the Hillsdale shotgun team, making it one of the team’s largest recruitment classes, with one placing third overall in the highest class at the team’s first meet of the season at the Bald Mountain Shooting Range in Lake Orion, Michigan.
Among the 314 competitors at the registered sporting clays shoot was freshman David Ardis who placed third while competing at the highest level and shooting in the master class. Senior Leif Anderson took third in the AA class, and senior Jordan Sapp came in first in the A class.
The team spent its first days on campus before the meet bonding with the incoming athletes before the season began.
Junior Madeline Corbin said she is impressed with the freshmen’s performance.
“They’re all having a grand time,” Corbin said. “They’re good shots and they’re meshing with the team well.”
Freshman Henrik Kiledal, a Hillsdale local, said although he has occasionally attended practices with the Hillsdale shotgun team for the last year, he is still adjusting to the collegiate level.
“Everybody’s been really welcoming by helping us learn the different disciplines that some of us might not have worked on as much in high school,” Kiledal said.
The new recruits have much to contribute to the team, according to head coach Jordan Hintz.
“I think it’s a very strong class,” Hintz said. “We’re bringing in All-Americans in trap, skeet, and sporting, as well as international shooters. There’s a ton of talent and a ton of experience that we’re bringing in.”
Adding five athletes to the roster brings the team to 18 members — the largest it has ever been. It also leaves the group just two athletes below the 20-person limit for a Division II shotgun team.
“It’s a little dance,” Corbin said. “You want to get as close to 20 as you can without going over in order to stay in Division II and have a larger pool of scores that you can pull for team scores.”
Hintz said when he became head coach in 2019, the team was in Division III with 10 athletes. Since then, he’s expanded the team, bringing them into Division II, which is more intense because of the larger teams, Hintz added.
“I would go so far as to say that Division II is probably the most competitive division in collegiate shooting ever in terms of how many teams there are, how deep those teams are, and how competitive they are with each other,” Hintz said. “In Division I there are really only a couple teams that are vying for the podium.”
The team has excelled in Division II, earning the 2024 national championship title and placing third in the 2025 national championships.
“Our team is successful pretty much everywhere we go,” Kiledal said.
This year, the Hillsdale shotgun team aims to take back its winning title.
“There’s really nothing holding us back from being able to win another national championship,” Hintz said.
