Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)- The Wisconsin Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) State Championships is a three-weekend long event held annually to determine the best youth shotgun teams in Wisconsin. Last year’s SCTP High-Over-All National Champion Central Falcons stood up to the challenge by sweeping the top-varsity spots in all three events this year; Skeet held June 10 at Sauk County Trap & Skeet, Sporting Clays on June 17 & 18 at Woods & Meadow in Warrens and the Trap Championship held at the WTA Homegrounds on June 23 & 24 in Nekoosa. Overall 1423 athletes including 246 young ladies partook in one of the three SCTP State Championship events, an increase of nearly 20% from last year.
The Championship events are highlighted each year with the Trap Championship as it is the largest shooting event in Wisconsin and one of the largest in the country with 1293 athletes from 62 different teams that competed Friday afternoon and all day Saturday on the 30 fields at the WTA Homegrounds. The Falcons five of Hunter Conrad, Kenneth Beverly, Mathew Perona, John Dietz and Scott Hanover combined to break 486 of 500 possible targets to take a three target advantage over the Beaver Dam Trap Team and nine targets over the third-place Sauk County Youth Trap Team. The Waterford Wolverines and B.H.S. Demons were fourth and fifth.
Topping the Junior Varsity teams was Rocket Trap from Oostburg, Intermediate Advanced went to the Central Falcons, Intermediate Entry to Sauk County and Rookie gold was won by the Hudson Raiders.
Aaron Walechka of the Jefferson Sportsmens Club Youth Trap Team took the Men’s Grand Champion buckle home for breaking 99 targets along with Courtney Uhlenhake of the B.H.S. Demons who brought home the ladies Grand Champion buckle with a 95.
Top individual scores for men went to Tyler Thiede in Varsity, Robert Rahut in Junior Varsity, Logan Kieran in Intermedate Advanced, Greyson Ponder in Intermediate Entry and Payton Johnson in Rookie. Top ladies were Amy Spiering in Varsity, Jenna Leah Crook in Junior Varsity, Chloe Uhlenhake in Intermediate Advanced, Chloe Shied in Intermediate Entry and Taylor Dale in Rookie. Jordan Hintz and Alexandra Konop took the Collegiate honors.
Proving they are more than just trap shooters; Central also won the 2017 State High-Over-All Championship totaling 1066 of a possible 1100 in the combination of Skeet (295), Sporting Clays (283), and Trap (486) to top the Marquette Hilltoppers and Waterford Wolverines.
The weekend at the WTA Homegrounds was filled with side events including Handicap, Doubles and Bunker Trap and several shooting games; this year over 180,000 targets were thrown without a single safety incident; a testament to the dedicated coaches and parents who put safety first in the SCTP. The WTA members did a wonderful job preparing the grounds and trap fields for the largest single-day event ever at the facility that opened in 2013.
Up next for the Wisconsin SCTP teams is the National Championships held July 8-15, 2017 at the Cardinal Center in Marengo, Ohio. Currently there are over 425 Wisconsin athletes registered to compete in the event including the Central Falcons who are heading to Ohio to attempt to repeat as the H.O.A National Champions for the second consecutive year. Over 1.5 million targets will be thrown over the eight-day event.
Complete results from the WI SCTP State Championships can be found at: https://shot.sssfonline.com/shot5/web/publish/results/index.asp?eid=149
For more information on the Wisconsin Scholastic Clay Target Program visit the WI SCTP Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WisconsinSCTP/
About the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation
The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is 501(c)(3) public charity responsible for all aspects of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) and Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) across the United States. SCTP and SASP are youth development programs in which adult coaches and other volunteers use shooting sports to teach and to demonstrate sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, ethics, integrity, teamwork, and other positive life skills. SCTP was developed as a program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) until the SSSF was created in 2007 to operate the SCTP. In 2012, SSSF created the SASP and became the managing foundation of both programs.
For more information about SSSF, visit www.sssfonline.org