Illinois Teams Go 1, 2 In SCTP Rookie Div. Trap National Championship

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Golden Eagle Trap Team and the Carlinville Clay Busters delivered a one, two punch for their home state of Illinois in the Rookie Division at the 2016 Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) National Team Championships in Ohio.

Golden Eagle took the national title with a combined target count of 882, out of a possible 1,000. Landon Sievers of Batchtown, as the Rookie Division’s Top Gun, led the squad with 190, followed by Steven Margherio of Hamburg with 180, Cole Bick of O’Fallon, Mo. with 178, Samuel Gilman of Hardin with 172 and August Squier of Hamburg with 162.

Gavin Rynders of Greenfield helped take the Carlinville Clay Busters to a second place finish with 188 targets toward the team’s 866 final count. Luke Lorton of Greenfield added 188 while Ben Warwick of Auburn contributed 178 followed by Brody Harris of Carlinville with 166 and Justin Paul of Chesterfield with 151.

Held July 9-16 at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio, nearly 2,200 athletes representing 28 states faced more than 961,000 clay targets during eight days of competition in the shooting disciplines of Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays.

Third place went to one of the three Ohio squads that rounded out the top five in the division. The Centerburg Youth Shooting Sports team broke a total of 834 targets. Rylan Baker and Gavin Debord, both of Mount Vernon, led with 177 each, followed by Billy Noice of Pataskala with 174. Nathan Hudson of Westerville finished with 157, and Tuff Hutchins of Fredericktown with 149.

Fourth place went to the North Lawrence Claybusters with 765, with Ethan Holcomb of Canton breaking 182, followed by Travis Barcheck of Canal Fulton with 174, William Carmichael of Dalton with 166, Morgan Kunkle of Clinton with 129 and Meghan McKean of Barberton with 114.

The Buckeye Chippewa Trapshooting Club squad of Dylan Kress of Clinton (170), Ian Tackett of Tallmadge (167), Mason Slinger of Medina (158), Grace Tackett of Tallmadge (123) and Evan Rastorfer of Rittman (114) combined for 732 total targets in their fifth place finish.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) is a youth development program in which adult coaches and other volunteers use the shooting sports of Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays, as well as the Olympic disciplines of Bunker Trap, Trap Doubles and International Skeet to teach and to demonstrate sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, ethics, integrity, teamwork, and other positive life skills. Nationally, there are nearly 13,700 students and more than 2,900 coaches from 43 states participating in the Scholastic Clay Target Program.

The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. (SSSF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the National Governing Body for the Scholastic Clay Target Program. SCTP was started by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in 2001.

For more information about SCTP and SSSF, visit www.sssfonline.org. You can also follow SCTP on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShootSCTP or @ScholasticShootingSports on Instagram.