Clay target teams take on the field in Alexandria

Largest youth shooting sports meet in the nation draws teams from Richfield and Bloomington

Clay target teams marked the end of the state high school league 2023-24 year with its annual meet on June 21 at the Minnesota Gun Club in Prior Lake.

Leading up to the state meet, the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League wrapped up its nine-day state tournament June 10-18 in Alexandria. Teams are categorized into classes from 1A to 8A.

Jefferson

Jefferson was part of the Class 3A conference at the trap shooting state championships June 12 in Alexandria.

Alex Frank and Emmet Hendrickson each had a two-session score of 84s to lead the team in the trap competition. Luke Nathe (95) tied for 20th to lead the team and William Morris had a score of 85 to grab a share of 227th place in the male trap high gun standings.

Jefferson’s Liam Carroll placed 21st in the novice overall division with a score of 76 while Canby’s Logan Hunt had the trap high gun 89. Jefferson’s scorers: Tyler Bell tied for 76th place (59); Connor Loo tied for 95th (54); Sophia Neumann tied for 97th (53); Max Guberud tied for 110 (49); and Jaydon Miller tied for 123rd (44). In the junior varsity overall category, Jefferson’s Jonathan McLoughin tied for 73rd place with an 80; Sam Morris tied for 172nd (72); Nathan Custer tied for 195th (70); and Hudson Kinne tied for 229th (66).

Jefferson’s varsity scorers: Luke Nathe tied for 22nd (95); William Morris tied for 224th (85); and Alex Frank tied for 273rd (84). Noah Borowiak, Joe Enger and Liam Moore all tied for 316th with 82s.Micah Jagoda tied for 343rd (81) and Graydon Halloran tied for 437th (69).

Nathe was among those with a perfect 25 (hitting 25 targets in a row).

Team scores including the five best scores (targets hit out of 100) combined to get the team score.

In the junior varsity division, Jonathan McLoughin tied for 73rd place (80); Sam Morris tied for 172nd (72); Nathan Custer tied for 195th (70); and Hudson Kinne tied for 229th (66).

In Class 3A Conference, the top honors in novice went to Cloquet (384); second place Henning (384) and third place Fosston (347); junior varsity honors went to West Central Area (433), Two Harbors (429) and Canby (428); varsity honors went to Park Rapids (483), Minnewaska (474) and Sebeka (473).

The top overall team score in the Class 3A Conference went to Park Rapids with a 483.

High gun honors in novice females went to Park Rapids’ Grace McCloud (82), Hopkins’ Juliette Faber-Savage (76) and Park Rapids’ Olivia McCloud (74).

Novice boys gigh gun was Canby’s Logan Hunt (89), Cloquet’s Noah Butler (85) and Minnewaska’s Carter Katzenmeyer (83). High gun junior varsity female honors went to Canby’s Jadyn Schmitt (94), Canby’s Rachel Fairchild (88) and Two Harbor’s Maria Stellmach (88). High gun junior varsity boys went to Grand Meadow’s Parker Armagost (96), Rogers’ Sam Naber (93) and Two Harbor’s Jax Nelson (92). High gun varsity female Dilworth’s Shelby Fortier (96), Eden Valley’s Brinn Kuechle (96) and Spring Lake Park’s Makena Frederickson (94). High gun varsity male honors went to Gibbon’s Richard Magnuson (99), Park Rapids’ Avery Kapaun (98) and Hills’ Blake Leenderts (98). Overall high gun honors went to Magnuson (99).

Richfield-Holy Angels

The Richfield-Holy Angels cooperative and Kennedy teams competed in Conference 1A which hosted its meet in Alexandria on June 10.

Jake Nelson and William Smith each joined the 25-straight club for hitting 25 consecutive targets.

In the varsity overall, Hunter Bemis and Eduard Held tied for 58th place with rounds of 91. Smith was 77th with a 90 and Max De Roma and Nelson shared 95th place with an 89. Landon Rudolph-Sieling was 114th with an 88; Silas Kriha was 150th with an 86; Noah Johnson was 168th with an 85; William Mattson was 213th with an 83; Nina Slingsby was 257th with an 81; Ben Citron was 276th with an 80; Marco Joaquin Soriano was 295th with a 79; and Ryan Nagle was 388th with a 65.

Kennedy’s varsity scorers included: Braden Thornburg tied for 30th place with a 93; Evelyn Oliver tied for 58th with a 91; Carter Bain tied for 77th with a 90; Max Carlson tied for 213th with an 83; Garrett Rikkola tied for 241st with an 82; and Christian Poyzer tied for 307th with a 78.

Oliver tied for eighth in the varsity female high gun (91).

For varsity male High Gun, Thornburg was 28th (91), Bain tied for 68th (90), Carlson tied for 194th (83), Rikkola tied for 218th (82) and Poyzer tied for 277th with a 78.

For Richfield varsity male high gun: Bemis and Held tied for 51st (91), Smith tied for 68 (90), De Roma and Nelson tied for 85th (89), Rudolph-Sieling tied for 104th (88), Kriha tied for 136th (86), Johnson tied for 150th (85), Mattson tied for 194th (83), Citron tied for 247th (80), Soriano tied for 265th (79) and Nagel tied for 345th (65).

In junior varsity overall high gun, Richfield’s Josh Nelson tied for 70th (80) and Charlotte Wagner tied for 250th with a 59. Kennedy’s Torque Carlson tied for 204th (67) and Vance Hecht tied for 238th (62).

Richfield’s Wagner tied for 52nd in the junior varsity girls high gun rankings with a 59.

Follow Jason Olson on Twitter @Jason0lson or @SunSportsJason.