After the safety briefing, Jacob Phillips ‘20 gathers the team to announce squad locations and flight times.

Over the MLK holiday weekend, the Jesuit Competitive Shooting Team competed against fifteen other high school teams at Ellis County Sportsman Club for the January SCTP tournament. Most athletes shot both sporting clays and skeet; however, by no luck of their own, the team secured the very first and very last flight times of the day. Shooting at 8:00 in the morning and again at 5:00 in the evening meant many ended up camping out at the range for over thirteen hours.

Sporting Clays

The 100 target course consisted of fourteen different stations each with a different target display. Everything from falling crosser true pairs to quartering rabbit report pairs were covered in the tournament. The target display combinations are endless for sporting clays, making for a unique course for each new tournament.

Conner Harrington ’22 finishes the sporting clays course.
  • Twenty-four Jesuit athletes entered to shoot in the tournament of 234 for sporting clays. Jesuit’s top five scores and tournament placement are as follows:

87: Brittan Welborne ‘21 (Varsity – 14th place)
82: Richard Hambleton ‘22 (Varsity – 22nd place)
76: Evan Bare ‘23 (Junior Varsity – 32nd place)
76: Matthew Freeman ‘20 (Varsity – 36th place)
74: Sam Henrion ‘21 (Varsity – 41st place)

Skeet

Athlete shot 4 rounds of skeet totaling to 100 targets. Skeet is a standard discipline in shooting sports that consists of the same crossing targets that are shot from eight different stations on the skeet field. With a backlog in the flight times, the final skeet squad did not get to start until after sunset at 7:30pm which meant they would be in the dark under the field lights.

Andrew Porter ’20 shoots doubles on station two.
  • Twenty-two Jesuit athletes entered to shoot in the tournament of 212 for skeet. Jesuit’s top five scores and tournament placement are as follows:

80: Miles Dikun ‘21 (Varsity – 29th place)
78: Brittan Welborne ‘21 (Varsity – 33rd place)
78: Jacob Phillips ‘20 (Varsity – 35th place)
77: Andrew Porter ‘20 (Varsity – 36th place)
75: Palmer Bowman ‘23 (Junior Varsity – 17th place)

Looking Forward

Overall as a team, Jesuit placed 7th with a score of 789 out of 1000 possible targets. Landing in the middle of the pack, Jesuit trailed the first place Allen Eagles by 140 targets. However, with room for improvement, the team is eager to work with one another at upcoming practices.

Brittan Welborne ‘20 comments on the tournament and what is to come next.

“I was really happy to place in the middle of the ranking because it showed just how far the team has come from the beginning, but also shows that we still have a lot of work to put in to get up in the ranks. Overall, it was a fun and safe competition. I am looking forward to preparing and improving for our next tournament on February 22nd.”

The Jesuit Competitive Shooting Team will be the host team for the February trap and sporting clays tournament at Ft. Worth Trap and Skeet Range so be sure to stay tuned to The Roundup for more Jesuit Competitive Shooting Updates!