AmmoLand.com

Shooter James Austin 3-Peats With Area 1 Revolver Win

U.S. Practical Shooting Association

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. --(Ammoland.com)- For the third year in a row James Austin of Fox Island, Wash. has claimed the Revolver division title at the USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory.

Austin, who won seven of 12 stages, led the field after winning the first two stages but fell to second behind Brian Noel of Mercer Island, Wash. Austin reclaimed the lead from Noel on the fifth stage and held it through the remainder of the match. Austin finished with a final score of 1160.8658 points.

“With seven stage wins, and his third consecutive Revolver division title, James is proving hard to beat when it comes to the Area 1 wheelgun match,” said Chuck Anderson, the USPSA Area 1 director.

Noel, who won two stages, finished in second place with 1101.3063 points. Third place went to Sam Keen of Gallatin, Tenn. who also won two of the 12 stages in the match and finished with a final score of 1074.7420.

Rounding out the top five were Dan Short of Elk Grove, Calif. in fourth with won one stage and a score of 953.9938, and Alan Kies of Tacoma, Wash. in fifth place with 822.9192.

Kies’ fifth place finish put him atop the senior competitors to take the Senior Revolver title. Ron McGraw of Cottage Grove, Ore. finished as the top Super Senior in the match with a final score of 639.9367 points.

The 2011 USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory, was held June 22-26 at Albany Rifle and Pistol Club in Shedd, Ore. and drew 318 top pistol shooters from around the country, as well as Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, the states that make up the Area 1 region.

To learn more about practical shooting, or join the 20,000 members of the U.S. Practical Shooting Association in the most dynamic and fast-paced shooting sport around, visit www.USPSA.org, follow @USPSA_Shooting on Twitter, like USPSA on Facebook (www.facebook.com/USPracticalShootingAssn) or read the Practical Shooting blog (www.practicalshooting.posterous.com).

About:
USPSA is a non-profit membership association. Most of the more than 20,000 individual members belong to and regularly compete at one of the nearly 375 affiliated clubs and sections (groups of clubs banded together for mutual benefit) located across the United States. USPSA is affiliated with the International Practical Shooting Confederation (I.P.S.C.), which is comprised of approximately 67 nations. USPSA is the American region of IPSC. Visit: www.uspsa.org

Filed under: Competitive Shooting News by Ammoland No Comments »

Eddie Garcia Holds Off Chris Fritz To Claim Area 1 Open Shooting Title

U.S. Practical Shooting Association

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. --(Ammoland.com)- Cameron’s Custom Guns’ Eddie Garcia of Mesa, Ariz. went from a fifth place finish in 2010 to claiming the Open division title this year at the USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory.

Garcia began the match in second place after Chris Fritz of Spanaway, Wash. won the first stage, but quickly bounced back to take the lead with his first of five stage wins on the second stage of the match.

Fritz was able to reclaim the lead on the next stage and held it through the fifth stage where Garcia began his move back to frontrunner status with his second stage win. With two more immediate stage wins on stages six and seven, Garcia opened up his lead to 32 points.

Despite picking up two late stage wins, and coming to within 0.3435 points of Garcia after the tenth stage, Fritz was unable to overtake the leader and finished in second place with a final score of 1149.6590 points to Garcia’s 1161.0812.

“Open division competition is always fierce and Eddie was very strong this weekend, finishing in the top three on nine stages, and no lower than seventh on any stage, to hold off Chris,” said Chuck Anderson, the USPSA Area 1 director.

Rounding out the top five was James Ong of Reno, Nev. repeating his 2010 third place finish with a score of 1103.1880. Nick Helterline of Everett, Wash. won three stages and finished in fourth with 1090.0614 points while Keith Tyler of Vancouver, Wash. took fifth with 1050.0179.

Elsewhere in the Open division, Athena Lee, the Team Limcat shooter from Katy, Texas, finished 11th overall with nine stage wins and a final score of 938.2747 points to claim the Women’s Open division title. Dexter Bradley of West Richland, Wash. finished as the top junior shooter with 831.7677. Among the senior shooters, Canadian Frank Koch of Calgary, Alberta won the Senior title with 903.3180 points while Frank Cook of Butte, Mont. won the Super Senior title for the fourth year in a row with his score of 793.5845.

About:
USPSA is a non-profit membership association. Most of the more than 20,000 individual members belong to and regularly compete at one of the nearly 375 affiliated clubs and sections (groups of clubs banded together for mutual benefit) located across the United States. USPSA is affiliated with the International Practical Shooting Confederation (I.P.S.C.), which is comprised of approximately 67 nations. USPSA is the American region of IPSC. Visit: www.uspsa.org

Filed under: Competitive Shooting News by Ammoland No Comments »