Washington’s Layla Ziegler on target with her favorite sport

WASHINGTON, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — She tried golf and figure skating but Layla Ziegler found her niche when her grandfather took her to a shooting range.

“I shot a little 22 (caliber) revolver and I loved it,” Layla Ziegler said. “I came back the next day and shot for five hours.”

Her grandfather is a former U.S. Marine. But her dad’s favorite sport is golf and he has no background shooting guns.

So it didn’t seem likely Layla would embrace pistol shooting.

“The same daughter that didn’t like to sweat or be outside that much,” her father Dustin Ziegler joked. “But the second day my father took her to the range, she was there for five hours.”

That was nearly three years ago. Now the Washington High School junior shoots guns in her backyard a couple times a week to get ready for competitions in a sport called action pistol.

In that sport, competitors shoot a targets, from different distances, in different stances. The best score possible is a 1920 and in a competition in Louisiana earlier this year, Layla scored a 1903.

“It gives me a happy feeling, confidence knowing that all the work I put in is coming out and I’m doing well,” Layla Ziegler said. “I feel good when I’m shooting well.”

The 16-year-old is often the youngest at competitions. Sometimes she’s the only female.

At nationals last month, she had the fifth best score among all women competing. She says she doesn’t feel out of place in a male-dominated sport.

“I guess I don’t look at it that way,” Layla Ziegler said. “Everyone is so nice (at competitions). Nobody treats you differently.”

Ziegler, who is also a member of the Washington High School marching band, is quick to credit her Bloomington-based coach Steven Stewart of CI Shooting Sports, for a lot of her success. She isn’t sure this success at piston shooting will lead to a career or a course of study in college.

But the girl who didn’t necessarily like to sweat has found a sport she enjoys.

“Especially,” she said. “when I shoot really good scores!”

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