The Hillsdale College Action Shooting team hosted the first ever national collegiate United States Practical Shooting Association championship.
The Chargers won both the Collegiate Limited and Collegiate Open divisions, and finished with the best four-man squad.
Coach Adam Burlew created and executed the idea for a national collegiate championship with the help of senior team captain Taylor Chen. Chen reached out to every school he knew that had a pistol team.
The list included Bowling Green State University, Clemson University, Michigan State University, Texas A&M University, United States Military Academy at West Point, United States Naval Academy, and Virginia Tech University among others.
According to junior team member John Beecher, MSU, BGSU, Clemson, and Michigan Tech all agreed to make the trip.
Sophomore team member Jianna Coppola said the goal for the tournament was to make a case that colleges should recognize the competitive side of team action shooting.
“There are more action shooting teams than you’d think,” she said. “But it’s a matter of making the competitions available.”
Coppola also said the team saw a surprising turnout despite the weather for the championship.
“It rained so maybe the crowd would have been bigger, but we all had friends show up which was nice to see,” Coppola said.
Gabriel Beckwith was one of the students who made the short trip to Hillsdale’s John A. Halter Shooting Sports Center for the competition.
“It was well-worth enduring the weather to watch the team compete this weekend,” Beckwith said. “The competition was well-organized and watching Hillsdale dominate was entertaining.”
The Hillsdale men’s and women’s teams each scored well overall. According to Beecher, they swept the podium in all but two categories.
The Limited Division team of Chen, senior Sandy Vietor, senior Jonah Kirstein, and sophomore Kayla Mullin placed first. The Open Division team of Beecher, senior Eli Hudson, junior Brendan Burnham, and junior Joseph Grohs placed first, as well. For the men, Chen, Viteor, Beecher, and Hudson made podium for the men. All three women– sophomore Clara Bozzay, Coppola, and Mullin– placed individually.
The team looks forward to a few more opportunities to compete this fall, Coppola said, including a match over fall break.
But this national championship, the first of its kind, proved successful for the Chargers and fans of college action shooting alike, according to Coppola.
“We hope to organize or compete in many more collegiate matches in the near future,” Beecher said. “And we plan a repeat of this year’s match next fall!”