Courtesy: Hillsdale Athletic Department
The Hillsdale shotgun team won overall in the Association of College Unions International and Scholastic Clay Target Program Upper Midwest Championship, Oct. 3-5, and took second at the ACUI/SCTP Central Midwest Championship, Oct. 10-12.
In the Upper Midwest Championship, in Marengo, Ohio, the Chargers won decisively overall, taking first in four out of the six shooting categories and placing second in the other two. In the Central Midwest Championship, in Sparta, Illinois, the Chargers won the Super Sporting division and took third in Sporting Clays and Doubles Skeet.
At Marengo, the shotgun team took first in Doubles Trap, Super Sporting, Doubles Skeet, and American Skeet, placing second in American Trap and Sporting Clays.
Junior Madeline Corbin took first in the women’s division, followed by sophomores Taylor Dale and Marin McKinney, who rounded out the podium for the Chargers. For the men, senior and team captain Leif Andersen took third for the men.
In Sparta, sophomore Luke Johnson took third overall in the men’s division, while Dale and McKinney placed third and fourth in the women’s division.
Shotgun competitions are scored on how many targets each shooter hits, with the top five on each team scoring in each event. The team’s score is a combination of the top five scores in each discipline.
According to head coach Jordan Hintz, the Central Midwest Championship was one of the biggest competitions of the year.
“Other than college nationals, this was the biggest intercollegiate shoot of the year,” Hintz said. “Nineteen schools were at the shoot.”
Andersen said that the team was happy to take second at the match but had higher hopes after taking first in previous seasons.
“We were happy with second place,” Andersen said. “But yeah, we’d won that shoot all three years I’ve been on the team. This is the first year we got second, so it was kind of disappointing to not get first.”
According to Hintz, the team suffered from a lack of members, but came together to overcome the challenge.
“We only had 14 athletes out there out of the 17 currently on the roster, so that put us at a little bit of a disadvantage,” Hintz said. “But you’ve got the people you’ve got, and across the board people stepped up.”
According to Corbin, the Upper Midwest shoot showed encouraging progress in skills the team has been working on.
“It was a confidence booster on most of the disciplines,” Corbin said. “We’ve been working really hard on Sporting Clays and Super Sporting, and, especially in Super Sporting, our scores reflected that.”
According to Hintz, in addition to helping score and place overall, senior Davis Hay, freshman Zach Hinze, and junior Alex Hoffman had impressive individual performances.
“Hay and Hinze both shot a perfect hundred in American Trap,” Hintz said. “Another performance worth highlighting is Hoffman, who shot an 88 on Sporting Clays.”
Andersen expressed confidence in the Chargers’ future after both performances.
“Pound for pound, I think we’re the best shooters in the nation,” Andersen said. “But being able to perform when the time comes to perform, I think we need to really buckle down on that.”
Oct. 20-21, the Hillsdale Shotgun team is going to San Antonio, Texas, for the National Sporting Clays Association Nationals.
