Blanchard, English Take Home Skeet Titles at Shotgun Junior Olympics
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – -(AmmoLand.com)- The Skeet finals were held at the 2009 Shotgun National Junior Olympics yesterday at Ft. Carson’s International Shooting Park with Olympic Training Center Resident Athletes BJ Blanchard (Vidor, Texas) and Amber English (Colorado Springs, Colo.) claiming their respective titles.
Blanchard finished in first place for the men with a total of 147 targets. Rob Horton (Eatonton, Ga.) took second place with 144 targets and Jon Michael McGrath (Tulsa, Okla.) finished third with 143 hits.
English earned the top spot for the women after an exciting shoot-off with Ali Chiang (Redwood Shores, Calif.). Both shooters were tied at 138 targets at the conclusion of the final and in the shoot-off, English shot five targets to Chiang’s four to take home the title. Chiang took second place and third place went to Morgan Craft (Hughesville, Pa.) who finished with 133 total hits.
Other top finishers in the Skeet event include:
Junior Men
- J2 First Place – TJ Bayer, 118
- J2 Second Place – Granger DeWitt, 118
- J2 Third Place – Nash Porter, 116
- J3 First Place – Philip Jungman, 114
- J3 Second Place – Luis (Taz) Gloria, 112
- J3 Third Place – Roy Chavalittlekha, 110
Junior Women
- J2 First Place – Brandy Drozd, 106
- J2 Second Place – Gayla Gregory, 88
- J2 Third Place – Olivia Ornouski, 84
- J3 First Place – Kaycee McNutt, 39
For the third consecutive year, USA Shooting and the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) teamed up to host the National Junior Olympic Championships, giving many more young shooters the opportunity to compete in the event.
The top SCTP individual finishers in Skeet include:
High Male Overall
- Tanner Brooks, 113
Men’s Senior Varsity
- First Place – Brandon Belanger, 136
- Second Place – Jimmy Gibson, 131
- Third Place – Luis (Taz) Gloria, 131
Men’s Junior Varsity
- First Place – Glenn Carl, 110
- Second Place – Jakob Keldsen, 110
- Third Place – Richard Riddle, 108
Men’s Intermediate Advanced
- First Place – Ryan Smithart, 88
Men’s Intermediate Entry
- First Place – Aaron Vammer, 95
- Second Place – Brad Burch, 90
- Third Place – Mitchell Robinson, 74
High Female Overall
- Morgan Craft, 110
Women’s Senior Varsity
- First Place – Nicole Ellis, 45
Women’s Junior Varsity
- First Place – Olivia Ornouski, 84
- Second Place – Jamie Ommert-English, 66
Women’s Intermediate Entry
- First Place – Kaycee McNutt, 39
Approximately 200 junior shooters are participating in the International Skeet, Double Trap and Trap events at the 2009 Shotgun JOs. Juniors qualified for the event by winning their State Junior Olympic Championships, or by shooting a qualifying score. Competition will continue on Wednesday, July 29 with the Double Trap match and final and the Trap event will kick off on Thursday, July 30 with competition concluding on Saturday, August 1.
Complete results from the 2009 Shotgun National Junior Olympic Championships can be found at the end of the competition each day by visiting the Match Results page of www.usashooting.org.
Winchester Ammunition is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team:
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Winchester® Ammunition has been the exclusive ammunition sponsor and supplier of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team since 1999. Members of the 2008 shotgun team brought home four medals from Beijing using Winchester AA International Target loads. Winchester is an industry leader in advancing and supporting conservation, hunter education and our country’s proud shooting sports heritage. For more information about Winchester and its complete line of products, visit www.winchester.com.