Another year, another top state finish, with another return invite to national competition ahead.
The Spring Lake Park clay target club closed the spring season with a runner-up finish in the state skeet meet held in Prior Lake June 26, with Mason Meyer earning third place in the varsity male division.
Andover’s Jared Miller scored a 100 in the state clay target competition in Class A, while Anoka was led by Jon Chrest (88), Spencer Schmid (82) and Gretchen Paaverud (81).
The finish came on the heels of a dominant regular season for Spring Lake Park, in which SLP finished atop the conference in both trap and skeet, and fourth in sporting clays. Anoka had a fourth-place conference finish in skeet.
SLP’s Meyer and Makena Fredrickson swept the top spots in the conference for trap boys and girls, respectively, and both finished second in skeet.
“I think we had a great regular season,” Spring Lake Park coach Bill Zimmermann said. “We worked and practiced hard and it showed in our results.”
Having set an elite standard in recent seasons, SLP was left a bit disappointed by postseason results, yet still came away with several high scores and finishes.
“I think our top athletes had some high expectations and, despite putting up some great scores, were overall disappointed in themselves,” Zimmermann said. “That being said, we had some other shooters excel at the tournaments — a couple that come to mind are Zach Thompson shooting 18 targets above his average in trap and Ben Zimmermann shooting 15 above his average in skeet. As coaches, we are confident to say that our top three shooters were consistent and it was fun to see who would step up to fill the last two team spots — (head coach) Brad (Meyer) and I talked how many different athletes it could be! All things considered, it was a great season.”
Head coach Brad Meyer will phase out of the head coaching position in the fall following the graduation of his son Mason this spring.
“Coach Brad will be greatly missed for his shooting knowledge, connections and friendships he has made with athletes and families,” Coach Zimmermann said.
Spring Lake Park had 34 total athletes this season, with nine graduating seniors.
“We also had six rookies this past year,” Coach Zimmermann said. “We anticipate our fall season registration opening on or around Aug. 1. We would like to see our team grow. We are open to any SLP student in grades 7-12 with a Minnesota firearm safety certificate. Watch our team website at www.springlakeparkclaytarget.com/ for registration info.”
Nine SLP athletes will take part in the upcoming national competition in Mason, Michigan, from July 10-14, with only the nation’s top teams and athletes invited.
Scheduled to compete in the team format for SLP are Mason Meyer, Makena Fredrickson, Andrew Wefel, Trevor Blauert and Ben Zimmermann. Those five will be joined by Thomas Neft, Sam Ksepka, John Zimmermann and Steven Sjolund in the individual competition.
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