Cardinal Pekin Dust Devils compete at Nationals

After many weeks of practicing, our National qualifiers attended the SCTP Nationals Competition in Marengo, Ohio last week. While our program focuses on the American Trap Discipline, attendees have the opportunity to shoot in 9 different disciplines over the course of 12 days. The Cardinal Shooting Center has hosted this event for the last 5 years. With its 52 trap houses, 14 skeet fields, and 2 complete sporting clays courses, it is one of the few facilities in the nation that can accommodate the droves of athletes that come to compete from almost every state (California and Hawaii were not represented) every year.

This year was another record-breaking year with over 3500 athletes in attendance and more than 9000 registrations as many of the athletes will compete in more than one discipline. Currently our program requires that athletes shoot a competition average of 80% or better to participate in the State and National Shoots. The qualifying factors are reviewed and set on an annual basis before the season starts. Our qualifiers that chose to make the trip with us this year were:

Korwin Brown, Levi Coleman, Stephen Troxel, Luke Enloe, Owen Rupe, Teya Ebert, Kaylee House, Ian Silvers, Johnny Guiter, Arron Silvers, and Alex Dix

These individuals continued to practice weekly after the regular season as a team and spent countless hours of their own time practicing (whether it be at home or attending the Open Shoot Nights at the Ottumwa Ike's on Fridays) just to prepare for this event.

At the National Shoot, our athletes shot 100 rounds on 2 consecutive days for a total of 200 rounds. The level of competition at this event continues to climb every year just like our program numbers and the number of teams registered with the SCTP. This has been and will continue to be taken into consideration every year when the qualifications are set by our coaches. Some of the highlights of our trip and noteworthy accomplishments include:

Korwin Brown - 2 perfect rounds of 25

Alex Dix - 2 perfect rounds of 25

Arron Silvers - 2 perfect rounds of 25

Johnny Guiter - a perfect round of 25 and a 50 straight

Ian Silvers - a perfect round of 25

Varsity 1 Team of Johnny Guiter, Arron Silvers, Alex Dix, Kaylee House, Ian Silvers - 59th place out of 127 squads

Varsity 2 Team of Levi Coleman, Owen Rupe, Stephen Troxel, Luke Enloe, Teya Ebert - 100th place out of 127 squads

Korwin Brown - Mens’ JV Individual 71st place out of 412

Team Individual Results from Nationals

Korwin Brown: 23, 23, 25, 22, 25, 24, 24, 22 (188)

Levi Coleman: 20, 22, 22, 22, 23, 21, 24 (173)

Alex Dix: 23, 24, 23, 25, 24, 25, 24, 23 (191)

Teya Ebert: 21, 21, 20, 21, 22, 20, 19, 19 (163)

Luke Enloe: 22, 23, 24, 23, 23, 22, 23, 23 (183)

Johnathon Guiter: 23, 23, 25, 24, 23, 23, 25, 25 (191)

Kaylee House: 22, 21, 19, 20, 21, 19, 22, 22 (166)

Owen Rupe: 20, 24, 21, 17, 21, 22, 23, 23 (171)

Arron Silvers: 20, 23, 25, 24, 25, 23, 23, 24 (187)

Ian Silvers: 22, 25, 22, 24, 23, 23, 24, 20 (183)

Stephen Troxel: 21, 20, 21, 22, 20, 19, 23, 23 (169)