In its most important competition of the fall season, the Hillsdale College Shotgun Team delivered its best performance of the year.
Over the Oct. 19 weekend, the Hillsdale College Shotgun Team claimed a Division III victory over 27 other schools during the fall Scholastic Clay Target Program Nationals tournament in Columbus, Ohio. Not only did the team take first by a large margin of 78 clays, they also ranked fifth in the High Overall category against teams of all divisions.
More than 200 athletes participated in the tournament, which included the standard events: Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays.
While the combined efforts of the team contributed to the win, there were also several significant individual achievements during the three-day shoot.
Freshman Wood Glazer, who led the team in trap, had the biggest individual accomplishment of the year to date. Glazer took first in the High Overall category for the Trap shooting competition. Glazer shot 198 clays out of 200 clays, earning himself the title SCTP American Collegiate National Champion.
“I didn’t think much of this competition other than I was competing for my friends and teammates,” Glazer said. “I tried to be my best for the team.”
While he feels this is an important win for making a name for himself in the collegiate world, Glazer says he is also striving to be better in other disciplines so that he can be a better all-around shooter for the team.
Freshman Ida Brown finished fourth overall in Ladies Trap with a score of 193 out of 200 clays. The team’s Mental Coach Bob Palmer has been working with the team to develop strategies of getting in the “zone,” which helped Brown during her skeet competition.
Brown described how in between stations the comb on the top of her gun came loose. She managed to fix it and still finish the round with a score of 24. She attributed her calmness during the technical difficulties partially to Palmer’s strategies.
Senior Lucas Pieraccini was the fifth place HOA in the Skeet competition, with a score of 198 clays.
Additionally, four shooters shot 100 straight during the competition. Brown and Glazer shot 100 straight in Trap, and Pieraccini and Tommy Rodgers shot 100 in Skeet. For Rodgers, this was especially significant because it was his first time doing so in a competition.
After the rest of the team had finished their rounds, they gathered to watch Rodgers finish his.
Head Coach Jordan Hintz said it was an unexpected occurrence, but that he and the team were very happy about it.
“When I broke my 100th target, I just told myself that I knew I could do it and that I finally provided value to the team and to myself,” Rodgers said, “The support from the team was great.”
Hintz said that he was pleased with the team’s performance.
“I think it has a lot of bearing on the rest of the season because I felt everything was working together,” Coach Hintz said, “My hope would be that this is the norm now.”
