The first week of official competition went off pretty well for the NRHEG clay target yeam. Back for a third season, the team this year is fielding 22 shooters. The team ranges in ages from a few students in 6th grade to a small group of seniors and everything in between.
There are only two girls on the team this year, which is down from years past, but they are both very good shooters. Competing in Conference 6A, the team faces opponents from Brainerd, Woodbury, Cretin-Derham Hall, Kenyon-Wanamingo, LeSeur-Henderson, and Wadena-Deer Creek High schools each week. Competitions are never head to head.
Instead, each team shoots at their home site and submits their scores. They are awarded points using a true team fashion of scoring with their scores compared to every other team in the conference. The three categories of points are; High Individual Score, Average of the Top 50% of scores, and Overall Team Average. This system means there are no bench players. Every score counts.After one week of competition, the NRHEG team found itself in third place. One new recognition this year will be weekly recognition of the top 25 male and 25 female shooters by season average each week. These top 25 are recognized from a league of over 3,000 competitors. For week one, Haylie Mosher and Larissa Petersen were both in the top 25 among females.
The weather took a toll on the NRHEG team in week two. Just over half of their shooters were able to post scores. Fortunately, those scores were very competitive, thanks to some of the younger members finding a groove and turning in some great rounds.
After two weeks of competition, the team remains in third place in Conference 6A.
“They did not lose much ground on the leaders, but they did open up a gap between themselves and the rest of the conference,” said coach Dan Sorum.
In addition to the team success, Petersen and Mosher remained in the top 25 female shooters in the state. Larissa turned in a very nice 43/50 score and moved up to sixth overall.
The team shoots each Tuesday and Friday at the Owatonna Gun Club in Hope.