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Three members of the Luverne High School trap shooting team shot perfect rounds Saturday at the 2019 Trap Shooting Championship in Alexandria.
Cooper Arends, Marshal Dammann and Mitchell Schomacker were recognized as 25-straight club members.
In order to be a club member, students hit all 25 clay targets in one of four rounds. Students can also be members of the 50-, 75- or 100-straight clubs.
Coach Scott Loosbrock said it’s quite an accomplishment to achieve a perfect round score.
Winds Saturday came out of the north-northwesterly direction, straight into the shooters’ faces.
“There was a lot of movement in the birds (clay targets),” Loosbrock said.
“Overall we had a good weekend.”
More than 8,300 students participated in the trap shooting championships from June 10 to 18.
Top-finishing teams and individuals could qualify for the Minnesota High School League clay target-shooting tournament Friday in Prior Lake along with the champion conference teams and top 100 individuals from the regular season.
No local athletes qualified for the state tournament.
Fifty students were members of the Luverne team during the 2019 season.
This is the team’s third year of organization.
“I have a good feeling for next year,” Loosbrock said. “The future looks good.”
For the first time next year, the team will have senior members, many of whom began with the team in 2016.
High school trap shooting is open to students in grades 7-12.
One of those seniors will be Dammann, who finished the four rounds of 25 with a score of 87 out of 100 at the championship.
He shot a perfect 25 in the final round and ended the individual competition tied for 151st among varsity boys.
Joining Dammann as upcoming seniors are Jaden Knips and Mason Wenzel, who both shot 89s and tied for 115th individually.
Rounding out the upcoming senior class are Austin Watts-Boll, who shot an 88 (tied for 132nd) and Carter Loosbrock (78th, tied for 276th).
All the juniors shot in the varsity class.
Arends’ perfect score also came in the final round of competition. The sophomore ended with a score of 86, tied for 28th in the junior varsity class.
Classmates Justin Dohlmann finished with an 82 (tied for 229th on varsity), Camron Kopp, 81st (tied for 77th on junior varsity), and Leah Wynia, 85 (18th among varsity girls).
Schomacker, a freshman, was the team’s top shooter with a final score of 90 (tied for 96th on varsity). Schomacker achieved his perfect 25 in the second round.
Classmate Chase Overgaard finished with a 68 (tied for 193rd) in the junior varsity class and Trygve Gangestad shot an 82 (tied for 229th) in the varsity class.
Seventh-grader Holden Overgaard finished with a score of 75 (tied for 301st) in varsity.
Three students from Adrian also competed with the Luverne team.
Sophomore Austin Henning was in the junior varsity class and finished with a score of 84 (tied for 46th).
Eighth-grader Grant Wieneke shot a 68 (tied for 27th) in novice and classmate Jacob Henning finished with an 81 (tied for 77th) in junior varsity.
The top five scores from all 16 members at the championship comprised the team score.
Luverne finished 23rd out of 27 teams who competed Saturday. The team ended with a 443.
Badger-Greenbush-Middle River High School had the day’s highest team score of 488.
Luverne Box Score
Varsity R1 R2 R3 R4 T
Dammann 20 21 21 25 87
Dohlmann 22 22 19 19 82
Gangestad 19 24 19 20 82
Knips 24 23 18 24 89
Loosbrock 18 21 16 23 78
H.Overgaard 19 20 19 17 75
Schomacker 21 25 24 20 90
Watts-Boll 23 20 23 22 88
Wenzel 21 23 23 22 89
Wynia 20 22 21 22 85
Jr. Varsity R1 R2 R3 R4 T
Arends 21 20 20 25 86
A.Henning 20 23 20 21 84
J.Henning 21 23 19 18 81
Kopp 20 22 18 21 81
C.Overgaard 19 17 17 15 68
Novice R1 R2 R3 R4 T
Wieneke 19 18 16 15 68
Hills-Beaver Creek competes for first time
The H-BC trap shooting team had two of its 30 members participate at the Trap Shooting Championships.
This is the team’s second year in high school competition and its first year at the championship.
Brandon Taubert, a sophomore, shot a 64 out of 100 (tied for 353rd) in the varsity class.
Freshman Journey Dwire completed a 64 (tied for 38th) in the junior varsity female shooter class.
H-BC did not have enough members to participate in the team competition.
HBC Box Score R1 R2 R3 R4 T
Taubert 14 17 21 19 71
Dwire 19 13 19 13 64
Perfect scores during regular season
The high school trap-shooting practice began in late March.
The five-week regular season began in late April and extended through the week of May 19.
As a virtual league, each high school team competes at their local gun clubs, instead of traveling to an opponent’s course.
Scores from each week of competition are entered online. Each shooter competes in two 25-shot rounds each week.
Online scores reflect overall standings, perfect 25/50 rounds and top 25 shooters statewide.
No local students reached the top 100 by the end of the 2019 season.
The best season average for trap shooting ranged from 23.70 to 24.9, according to the scoring website.
Luverne junior Colton Schutz recorded a perfect 50-straight during week 5 and three 25-straights in other weeks.
“With that he had a 50-straight and a 75-straight,” said Coach Loosbrock. “Colton was the first one in Luverne to shoot a 50 and a 75.”
Schutz missed participation in the Trap Shooting Championship because he enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard and is attending basic training.
Freshman Hunter Ahrendt and junior Jaden Knips recorded 25-straights in week 4 and week 2 respectively.