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The precision and sporter class competitors will compete in 51�Թ�'s Junior 3-Position Air Rifle National Championship finals July 26 in Hillsdale, Mich.

The top eight competitors in the precision and sporter class were named Friday afternoon following Day 2 of competitive shooting in 51�Թ� Junior 3-Position Air Rifle National Championship in Hillsdale, Mich. The field started with 15 precision and 14 sporter class high school competitors and narrowed to the top 16 after two back-to-back matches where 240 shots were fired in three positions – prone, standing and kneeling – on a mobile firing range in an athletic center on the campus of Hillsdale College. 

The finals will begin at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday, July 26. The sporter top eight will fire 10 shots in the standing position, followed by the top eight precision. . 

Katlyn Sullivan of Statesboro, Ga., who competed in the Legion air rifle tournament in 2023 when it was held in Colorado, heads into the finals in first for precision. 

“This is really a mental endurance match with the back-to-back three-by-20; it really pushes you. This is my last three-by-20 match, and I don’t know if I’m happy or sad about that,” said Sullivan, laughing, who will compete on the air rifle team at the University of Nebraska this the fall. “It’s a mental game.” 

51�Թ�’s tournament “is a lot of shooting; it takes a lot of training and discipline,” said Bethany Shirley of Monroe, Ga., who heads into the finals in first position for sporter. Shirley practices every day, she said, either at the Walton County Air Rifle range or at home in her garage. “It takes a lot of concentration and discipline and dedication.”

Calling 51�Թ�’s air rifle tournament an endurance match was echoed by many of the competitors.  Jack Ogoreuc of Grove City, Pa., competed in the finals in 2023, placing sixth. He heads into tomorrow’s competition in fourth position where he said he’s just glad to be back.

“This tournament is great,” said Ogoreuc, who will compete on the air rifle team at West Virginia University this fall. “There are only 15 competitors so it’s nice and small. It’s a great time with lots of shooting, lots of endurance shooting. It’s an endurance match.”

Two three-position matches a day is something several of the competitors have never done before like Nicole Berger with the Gallatin Valley Sharp Shooters in Belgrade, Mont. 

“I have to treat it like a whole separate day,” she said. “I have to completely reset my brain, give myself time in-between to listen to music, do what I need to do to get back to where I was mentally in the morning. And basically, start from scratch for the second match.”

“You do have to reset,” agreed Mataya Turner with Granbury JROTC in Granbury, Texas. “If you didn’t shoot great the first time then you have to know that you almost have like a second shot at doing it, even though it’s all accumulative in the end.” 

Berger and Turner are both rising high school seniors and got into air rifle thanks to their fathers. 

Shooting “is the thing that we do together” Berger said. Turner’s father bought her a pistol at age eight “and I’ve loved shooting ever since,” she said. 

Air rifle is an individual sport, as well as a team one, which is one of the many aspects the American Legion competitors love about the sport. 

“I like how it’s an individual sport, so it’s you against you, and you’re always working to better yourself,” Berger said. “You can shoot with a team and that makes it fun but at the end of the day you’re the one who controls what happens on the line.”

And air rifle is often a sport that many don’t understand, Turner said. 

“A lot of people don’t understand the sport, and you have to explain that this is a little bit different than regular shooting,” she said. “It’s a lot harder than people think it is. It’s precision and you are trying to dial in, get the tightest grip you can down range and it’s mental. It is a really cool sport in the end because a lot of people don’t get to do this.” 

The top eight precision shooters for Saturday’s finals and their aggregate score:

1. 2,393 – Katlyn Sullivan of Georgia, American Legion Post 90

2. 2,384 – Carly Seabrooke of Alabama, Triple Nickel Junior Shooters

3. 2,375 – Kelsey Dardas of Colorado, Arvada Rifle & Pistol Club

4. 2,373 – Jack Ogoreuc of Pennsylvania, Oil City Jr. Rifle Team 

5. 2,368 – Ainsely McFarland of Montana, Yellowstone Rifle Club

6. 2,365 – Devin Wagner of West Virginia, Mason Dixon Junior Rifle Team

7. 2,359 – Danica Gamble of Montana, Yellowstone Rifle Club

8. 2,359 – Mackenzie Pruden of Texas, American Legion Post 295

The top eight sporter shooters for Saturday’s finals and their aggregate score:

1. 2,255 – Bethany Shirley of Georgia, Walton County Air Rifle

2. 2,252 – Ashley Carr of Nebraska, Guns R Us

3. 2,215 – Emma Allen of Georgia, American Legion Post 90

4. 2,202 – Connor Rowan of Tennessee, Daniel Boone High School JROTC

5. 2,172 – Bryan Morales of New York, American Legion Post 151

6. 2,161 – Layla Briggs of Louisiana, Haughton AFJROTC

7. 2,159 – Alana Griffiths of Oregon, Lebanon High School

8. 2,157 – Kenna Jordan of South Carolina, Walhalla High School