Michael Hollar Claims EGW Area 8 Production Title On Final Stage

Michael Hollar, seen here at the 2010 USPSA Nationals, won the EGW Area 8 Production title. Photo by P. Erhardt

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – It looked like smooth sailing to the Production division title for Michael Hollar at the U.S. Practical Shooting Association’s 2011 EGW Area 8 Handgun Championship in Fredericksburg, Va., that is until SGT Lee Dimaculangan got in the way and forced Hollar to win the title on the final stage of the match.

A top level Production division shooter from Conover, N.C., Hollar grabbed the lead at the start of the match with a win on the first stage. But Dimaculangan, who is a member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and stationed at Fort Benning, followed close behind in second place.

Dimaculangan, who never finished below ninth on any of the match’s 10 stages, stalked Hollar until stage seven when he took the lead. Like any good soldier, SGT Dimac, as he’s known, seemed to set up a base camp in first, holding off Hollar through the next two stages and forcing the Tar Heel shooter to win the match on the final stage.

Facing one of the Army’s top guns, and with the match on the line, Hollar ran the final stage a half second faster and narrowly edged out SGT Dimac on accuracy to win the stage and pick up the points needed to reclaim the lead and take the title.

Hollar won the match with a score of 1177.2203 points to Dimaculangan’s second place 1173.1048.

“The match-up between Michael and Lee shows how evenly matched the top shooters are in USPSA’s Production division. With the title decided by just one shot and a fraction of a second, a competitor’s fortunes can turn on a lot less than a dime as Michael demonstrated,” said Harry Foltz, the USPSA Area 8 director.

Rounding out the top five were Canada’s Jean-Philippe Drolet of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec who placed third with one stage win and a final score of 1155.0279, Brandon Wright in fourth with one stage win and 1128.8450 points and Eric Scheirer of Bethel Park, Pa. with two stage wins to take fifth with 1128.4279.

Elsewhere within the division, Cynthia Austin claimed the Women’s Production title with 788.7626. The current junior national champion, Sonny Morton of Ruther Glen, Va., one of two juniors competing in the division, placed seventh overall with 1116.5968. Bruce Wallace of Jacksonville, Fla. won the Senior Production title and finished 19th overall with 916.2423 points. Larry Blackmon placed as the top Super Senior with a score of 557.8760.

The 2011 EGW Area 8 Handgun Championship was held September 1-4 at the Fredericksburg Rod & Gun Club and drew over 300 top shooters. In addition to crowning champions in each of the six USPSA divisions – Limited, Limited-10, Open, Production, Revolver and Single Stack – the match also hosted a shooting fundraiser as part of a larger effort to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. To date the Area 8 region of USPSA, made up of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, has raised over $7,300 for the charity.

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