Max Michel Wins 3rd Area Open Title of the Season

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. — With the 2010 U.S. Practical Shooting Association Area 6 and Area 4 Open division titles already in hand, Team Sig’s Max Michel of Covington, La., set his sights on the Area 5 title this past weekend in Polo, Ill., and came away a winner.

Michel, who is the reigning national champion, put in a dominating performance, winning eight of 12 stages and leading the field of 84 from start to finish, claiming his third consecutive Open division regional title of the shooting season.

The win represents the fourth time Michel has won the Area 5 title, with previous wins in 2008, 2004 and 2001.

“With another outstanding performance, against strong competition, I think it’s safe to say that Max is USPSA’s number one ranked Open shooter,” said Michael Voigt, president of USPSA.

“One of the most difficult things to do in our sport is claim all eight regional titles, but Max has clearly shown with this third straight win that he has the competitive focus, and certainly the skill, to run the table in 2010.”

Team SVI's CHris Tilley finished second at Area 5. Photo by Paul Erhardt

Finishing nearly 20 points behind Michel in second place was Team SVI shooter and 2008 National Champion Chris Tilley of Raleigh, N.C. Tilley won three stages in the match and managed to narrow the gap to within just over a half point of Michel, but could not overtake the leader, finishing with a final score of 1396.2473.

Shane Coley of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga., took third with a final score of 1201.3548. Nick Greenfield of Hull, Iowa, and Nicholas Neel of Plano, Texas, rounded out the top five finishing fourth and fifth with 1155.4092 and 1123.3960 respectively.

Neel’s fifth place finish won him the Junior Open title.

In the Women’s Open contest Sarah Irish of Dearborn, Mich., outpaced Eva Micklethwaite of Tempe, Ariz., in the second half the match to win the title by a narrow 0.7408-point margin with her final score of 965.3516.

In the senior categories, Paul Thompson of Deerfield, Ill., took the Senior Open title while Bruce Carby of Byron, Ill., claimed the Super Senior Open title.

Hosted by the Tri County Gun Club in Polo, Ill., and sponsored by Canyon Creek, the Area 5 match grew 22.5% over the previous year with a total of 337 top shooters from around the country, as well as Canada, competing for a title in one of six divisions.

Area 5 is one of the eight USPSA shooting regions in the country and is made up of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The next regional match on the USPSA calendar is the 2010 USPSA Area 1 Pistol championship scheduled for June 24 through 27 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. For more information, visit www.uspsa.org.