All five Hillsdale competitors in the USA Shooting Tucson Selection Tournament won medals last weekend, allowing the team to move onto the junior selection match in Kerrville, Texas. The meet was the first of multiple tournaments to determine who will be going to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

The tournament ran Feb. 3-8 at the Tucson Trap and Skeet Club where windy weather added a challenge for the competitors.

“Wind affects everyone equally and we are not afraid to practice in adverse conditions, so hopefully they are handling it well,” coach Jordan Hintz said during the tournament.

In the trap competition, senior Ida Brown won gold in collegiate women’s and sophomore Sophia Bultema won gold in paralympic women’s. As for skeet, junior Josh Corbin won collegiate men’s silver, sophomore Kyle Fleck won collegiate men’s bronze, and freshman Jordan Sapp won junior men’s silver.

Both events, trap and skeet, featured 250 match targets. The tournament was sponsored by Hillsdale College, alongside Spandau, the NRA Foundation, and Team White Flyer.

“Our junior men’s skeet team here at Hillsdale College is very dominant within the USA Shooting competitions,” said Caitlin Royer, the competition manager for the Hillsdale College shotgun team. “The Tucson selection was a great warmup for them before competing in the Junior Selection match coming up in Kerrville, Texas, in March. Josh Corbin, Jordan Sapp, and Kyle Fleck have an amazing opportunity to make the Junior World Cup and World Championship team in Kerrville.”

Trap was equally successful this February, with both Brown and Bultema moving onto Kerrville as well.

“Ida Brown shot a very consistent match in Tucson where she made the Open Women’s Final and is sitting in a great position to make the Open World Championship Team,” Royer said. “That team will be decided here in Hillsdale at the Halter Center in May. Sophia Bultema shot a great match and had a few personal best moments throughout the competition. She has her sights set on making the Paralympic Trap Team for 2024.”

Corbin said it’s about a mix of individual and team success.

“My goal is to see Hillsdale on top of the podium,” Corbin said. “But in order to have a good team score, you have to have good individual scores.”

Despite winning silver in his division, Corbin said he felt he could have done better. 

“I didn’t really perform to my full capability,” Corbin said.

Coach Royer said she has had to learn how to ignore her own inner critic to better assist her athletes.

“I think that we as athletes are our biggest critics for sure,” Royer said. “I do think that each one of the athletes should find one thing that they’re proud of from that match, because I think that they all did exceptional. I would beat myself up so much more before being a coach, and it would take a long time for me to get out of the hole that I dug for myself. Now I feel like I have to show up and be prepared for the team as well.”

Despite not reaching gold, Corbin achieved a perfect 25 in two rounds, the only one to do so in his collegiate men division. He said he partially credits his successes to his supportive team.

“Other top shooting schools have larger teams, so we’re a pretty close knit community,” Corbin said. “I don’t think that the same relationship exists on other teams. It’s hard anytime you have a group of people to always get along, but other teams definitely don’t have the same chemistry that we do.”

The next leg of the USA Shooting qualification tournaments, the General Selection Matches, will be held in Kerrville, Texas, March 10-19.