Our Ramsey County 4-H air rifle team has returned from the National Championship competition at Grand Island, NE. The matches were held over the last week of June with opening ceremonies on Monday followed by fired matches in 3-Position Air Rifle Tuesday, Standing Air Rifle on Wednesday and Silhouette Air Rifle on Thursday. Each State is allowed to send only one team to compete in each event at the National Championships.
The awards for each of these events were given in the evening of the day following the competition with third day awards and overall awards given on Friday morning during the closing ceremonies.
Our team faced some fierce competition, most notably from the Nebraska team which finished in first place in each of the events to sweep the competition. The top 3 scores from each team make up the team total each day.
In the 3-Position air rifle event, Ramsey County’s Brady Schuler, Lauren Stiven, Rachel Vaagen and Isaac Vaagen claimed 2nd place. This is a 60-shot event fired from kneeling, prone and standing positions. Lauren led the team with a 531, followed by Brady with a 523 and Rachel with a 517. Lauren placed 8th and Brady placed 10th overall.
In the 40-shot Standing air rifle match, we earned 3rd place. Lauren’s 343 lead the team followed by Isaac with his 332 and Rachel’s 328. Lauren placed 6th overall.
Silhouettes were a challenge for us on the 3rd day, and we ended in a tie for 7th place. This is a 40-shot match fired at small metal silhouettes of chickens at 20 yards, pigs at 30 yards, turkeys at 36 yards and rams at 45 yards. Rachel led the team with a 23. Lauren followed with a 20 and Brady added a 17.
As you can see, this was a definite team effort with each team member contributing to the daily team score for a strong team finish.
At the end of the 3 days of competition, our Ramsey County team earned 3rd place overall among the 20 teams and some 8 individuals who competed.
The results and photos are available on the Nebraska 4H website: UNL-4-H Youth Development – Office – Documents
A spotlight of each our team members is available on: https://www.facebook.com/NorthDakota4HShootingSports/
We thank everyone who supported the team in their efforts to compete in this championship event. The team worked hard over a year and a half to develop the skills required to be competitive.
