The action shooting team defeated the USNA. Courtesy | Hillsdale College

The Hillsdale action shooting team beat the United States Naval Academy in a match at the John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Center Sept. 2. 

It was the first ever collegiate United States Practical Shooting Association and level one action shooting match.

“There is no collegiate division in this new sport, USPSA,” junior Taylor Chen said. “So this weekend, we hosted the first collegiate USPSA match, which is pretty cool.”

Hillsdale won with a score of 2,245.59 points, while the Naval Academy had a score of 1,894.97 points. Hillsdale beat the Naval Academy by 350.62 points. 

Fifty participants shot at the event, including Hillsdale action shooting team members, Naval Academy students, and the public.

All nine of the Hillsdale members who shot placed in the top 21 spots.

Senior Zechariah Steiger placed first with 678.75 points, junior Alexander Vietor placed third with 548.89 points, and senior Adam Bentley placed fourth with 519.12 points. 

“For us as a team, this was our first match running and shooting,” Chen said. “What we were doing before was stationary shooting. There was no drawing from the holsters. It was just shooting in one spot and shooting at steel.” 

The team has switched to a new format of competition. Athletes now draw their pistol from the holster at the sound of a timer and move through a course where they shoot at targets from different angles. 

Chen said Hillsdale had to prove to the USPSA there was enough interest to host a collegiate match. 

“We’re just grateful that it went smoothly because it’s like a proof of concept to the USPSA guys who were willing to give us a shot,” Chen said.

The Naval Academy reached out to Hillsdale about doing a match, Burlew said. 

“We put it all together and decided to do USPSA because that’s more exciting to watch — more interesting for the spectators,” Burlew said.

The Naval Academy does not have a social media presence, so the team didn’t know what they were going up against, Chen said.

“There’s always an intimidation factor. I mean, they’re a military academy. When you think of the military, you associate guns with it,” Chen said. 

Burlew said action shooting might appear to be out of control, but it’s actually very controlled. The goal of the running and shooting style of action shooting is to do basic marksmanship in the shortest amount of time possible.  

The match lasted three hours.  

“It ended up being pretty quick,” Burlew said. “Not too bad considering it was six stages, and we had five flights and five squads.” 

Sophomore Joseph Grohs said the Naval Academy students were very sportsmanlike.

“They were safe throughout the match, and they were super helpful,” Grohs said.

Chen said the Naval Academy students were also very professional and polite. 

“We had fun and friendly competition,” Chen said. 

After the match, Hillsdale and the Naval Academy had dinner at the AcuSport Grille, Burlew said. 

“The Navy boys and the Hillsdale guys all intermingled, hung out, and talked shop for a little while,” Burlew said.

According to Burlew, a handful of students came to watch the match. 

“I suspect most of them have never seen anything like that, so that was something cool to showcase,” Burlew said.

While the team currently has 11 members, only nine of them shot at the match. 

“The two that didn’t shoot are freshmen who had just joined that week, so they had barely gotten any training,” Chen said. “We decided to let them watch and see what it’s about. You don’t really want to toss a new person into the deep end right away.”

The team will next shoot Sept. 9 in the Brooklyn Steel Challenge at the Brooklyn Gun Club in Brooklyn, Michigan.