Vogel Surprises With Area 6 Limited Win

COVINGTON, Ga. — Team EOTAC’s Bob Vogel of Wapakoneta, Ohio won his first Limited division title at a regional match by topping a field of 111 shooters at the 2010 U.S. Practical Shooting Association’s (USPSA) Area 6 Handgun Championship on Sunday.

Vogel, who is the 2008 and 2009 National Champion in USPSA’s Production division and not known as a Limited shooter, opted to shoot in the division using his Glock model 24, giving up two rounds per magazine to his competitors.

Despite the deficit and a slow start, Vogel managed to take the lead on the fifth stage by winning it, his first of two stage wins, and held the lead through the end of the match to out-pace his nearest competitor by 40 points with a final score of 1131.5844. This was also Vogel’s first time competing in the Area 6 match, which has grown 20% over last year and is considered by many to be a mini national championship.

“This was one of the toughest matches I’ve shot. Though the shots weren’t difficult, the stages were very complex and required a lot of shooting positions,” said Vogel who made the 10-hour drive from Ohio with a group of shooters from neighboring Michigan.

“Despite a slow start in the morning, I managed to get on track and shoot the match clean. This win means a lot to me because it’s one of the toughest matches in the country and I was competing against the top talent in the division.”

Millennium Custom Guns’ sponsored shooter Shannon Smith of Tampa, Fla. found himself in the position of runner-up for the second year in a row. Smith also won two stages but was never able to claim the lead in the match but finished with a solid 1091.5496.

In third, just over seven points behind Smith, was last year’s fifth place finisher Manny Bragg of Kirksville, Mo. who also won two stages in the match and posted a final score of 1083.7478.

Rounding out the top five were Travis Tomasie of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit who won the title in 2007 but took fourth for the second year in a row with one stage win and a score of 1082.3541, and Hoschton, Ga. resident Robert Romero of the Noveske shooting team who led the match until the fourth stage, won three stages and took fifth with a final score of 1059.2940.

Among the women competing in the Limited division, Cameron’s Custom Guns’ Lisa Munson of Marysville, Wash. took top honors with a score of 841.3604 which also placed her 20th among all shooters in the division.

In the battle for top senior, Kert Gaskill finished in 17th place and claimed the Limited Senior division title with 889.6831while William Cochran of Waxhaw, N.C. finished in 68th place to claim the Super Senior title with 595.9418.

The top Limited Junior title went to Teepy Porter of St. Marys, Ga. whose 685.6401 final score was good enough for 50th place overall.

Maj. Steve Dennis of the U.S. Air Force Shooting Team out-shot fellow teammates MSgt. Edwin Gideons and Capt. Nick Seisser to finish 25th overall and claim High Military Shooter in Limited.

The Area 6 Handgun Championship was held at the South River Gun Club range in Covington, Ga. and sponsored by Georgia-based firearms maker Glock. The match drew 384 top shooters from around the country as well as Canada, Colombia and Jamaica.