The NRHEG clay target team got to watch the season unfold this past week as the league released each week of competition over a five-day period.
This process is the result of the flexible shooting schedule created by the league to deal with Covid restrictions. Each team in the league had eight weeks to get their rounds recorded and scores submitted and the league then calculated the results for each "week" of competition and released them one day at a time.
At the start of the week, the Panthers found themselves in a close battle for second with the team from Austin, while the team from Buffalo sat in first.
By the second day, the Panthers had surpassed Austin and, while they pulled away from their neighbors to the south, the remainder of the week they could never gain ground on Buffalo.
Individually, Caden Beauvais led the team with an average of 23.9 out of 25 possible. This put him in the league’s Top 100 shooters, which qualifies him for the MSHSL State Individual Tournament. Beauvais, a senior, finished fourth in the conference followed by Alex Dobberstein, Clay Stenzel, Reese Routh, Jason Eustice, Ralph Roesler, Eva Wayne, Keria Lenort, Miranda LaCanne, and Neela Wencl, all of whom finished in the Conference Top 25 shooters for either males or females.
"These are the most individual shooters we have ever had in the conference Top 25," said coach Dan Sorum. "It is an exciting standard when you consider that the qualifying event for the team to try and advance to the State Tournament uses the top five shooters that day instead of the whole team like the conference does. It puts us in a good spot."
The team will find out its state tournament fate when it competes at the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League Championship in Alexandria on June 20. This nine-day event determines the 40 teams that get to compete in the MSHSL State Team Tournament on June 25.