U.S. Coast Guard Academy Picks Up Second Consecutive SSC Collegiate Championship

Photo: P. Erhardt

EPPING, N.H. – The U.S. Coast Guard Academy claimed their second Scholastic Steel Challenge (SSC) title in a row by winning the Scholastic Steel Challenge Collegiate Fall Championship hosted by Sig Sauer and held November 12 at the Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, N.H.

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Combat Arms Team, who won the SSC Spring Championship this past May by 79.52 seconds with a combined time of  3363.15 seconds, posted a final time in the Fall Championship of 292.86 seconds, but outpaced the University of Vermont Gun Cats A-squad by the tighter margin of 28.35 seconds.

“The U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Combat Arms Team remains the top collegiate team in SSC competition but there’s no denying that they will have to keep an eye on their New England neighbors at the University of Vermont whose Gun Cats are clearly stalking the cadets and look ready to pounce,” said Scott Moore, director of the Scholastic Steel Challenge.

The USCGA’s first squad was led once again by Cadet Barton Nanney who posted the fastest individual time of 63.86 seconds followed by the second overall shooter Cadet Jonathan Sapundjieff (69.44), Cadet Jacob Naum (81.93) and Cadet Alex Webber (77.63).

Photo: P. Erhardt

The Gun Cats’ A-squad of Graham Cochran, Jeff Hammersmith, Takeshi Horiguchi and Chris Stecyk finished with a time of 321.21 seconds. Horiguchi led the Gun Cats’ effort and finished third overall in 73.41 seconds.

Third place went to the UVM B-squad with 432.66 seconds followed by the USCGA second squad (460.12), UVM C-squad (494.87), USCGA third squad (578.88),Yale (617.24) and the UVM Lady Gun Cats (718.29).

The names of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s winning Combat Arms Team shooters will be placed on a traveling trophy sponsored by Joseph Chiarello & Co., the firearms industry’s leading insurance  provider, which will be contested at next year’s Fall Championship.

The next major event on the SSC collegiate schedule will be the Army Strong Collegiate Shooting Championships hosted by the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga. March 13-18, 2012. The Scholastic Steel Challenge Collegiate Championship is scheduled to take place March 17-18.

The Scholastic Steel Challenge is a national team-oriented youth shooting program developed by the Steel Challenge Shooting Association and funded in part by a grant from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The program is open to young men and women ages 12 to 20 and offers them the opportunity to compete as a four person team for a national title in the action pistol discipline of speed shooting.

Earlier this year the program was expanded to offer college teams the opportunity to participate in the competition format.

From the beginning, industry support for the Scholastic Steel Challenge has been strong with the program picking up sponsorship from Action Target, Atlanta Arms & Ammo, Brownells, Glock, GT Target Stands, Joseph Chiarello & Co., MGM Targets, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network, Precision Delta, Safariland, Smith & Wesson, Winchester Ammunition and the Youth Shooting Sports Alliance.

For more information on the Scholastic Steel Challenge and the Steel Challenge Shooting Association, visit ScholasticSteelChallenge.com or SteelChallenge.com, follow @ScholasticSteel or @SteelChallenge on Twitter, find the Steel Challenge on Facebook or visit the Steel Challenge blog.