USA -(Ammoland.com)- And the winner is……Martin Methodist College!
The SCTP College Nationals were held this past weekend at the “Spooky” Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio, Oct. 28-30, 2016.
The facility, decked out with ghouls, goblins and witches, was once again the host for this 2nd annual college event.
Two hundred and seventy one athletes representing teams from 16 states made up over 853 registrations at this year’s College Nationals.
Throwing more than 148,600 clay targets in trap, skeet, sporting clays, bunker trap and 5-stand kept the Cardinal Center staff quite busy for a few days.
This year’s tournament saw an increase of 11 teams and almost 100 athletes over last year’s “inaugural” Championship event. Division 1 teams comprised of this year’s (HOA) champions, Martin Methodist College of Tennessee also included runner up Lindenwood University of Missouri and 3rd place Bethel College from Tennessee.
Division II teams included this year’s champion’s Ft. Hayes State University of Kansas followed by the Clemson University Shotgun team of South Carolina and taking 3rd was Midland University Shooting team of Nebraska.
Division III schools were represented by this year’s National Champions Hillsdale College of Michigan, runner-ups Roane State Community College Raiders of Tennessee and 3rd place University of Alabama Clay Shooting Team.
The SCTP/SSSF has made available over $140,000 to teams in their MidwayUSA Foundation accounts for their placements at this year’s National event.
Individuals turning in stellar performances included Ladies HOA winner, Bailey Crenshaw of the Clemson team, and Men’s HOA winner, Austin Svoboda representing Ft. Hayes State.
These athletes won SKB IS-300 shotguns compliments of the SCTP and SKB Shotguns. Other notables were perfect performances shot in the trap event (200 straight) by Caleb Lindsey – Martin Methodist College, Austin Svoboda – Ft. Hayes State and Justin Osborn – Martin Methodist College.
Lindsey would go on to win the Individual National title with another 50 straight to beat out Svoboda and Osborn.
The tournaments “Last Competitor Standing” competition held Saturday evening saw Madeline Kittrell of the Roane State Community College Raiders taking the top ladies honor and Ryan Gough from Ft. Hayes State outlasting the guys.
Madeline would go on to take on the top Men’s champion showing them that the ladies ruled this year.
Madeline won a beautiful Shamrock leather shooting bag for her hard work while both competitors won $1,000 Scholarships compliments of the SCTP and the NRA.
“The SCTP staff, along with the Cardinal Center, did a fantastic job! Site improvements, shoot quality and the hard of work of these folks was definitely noticed and appreciated by all that attended,” said Chad Wittenburg, head coach of the Martin Methodist College Clay Target Team of Tennessee. “This tournament has become one of the pinnacle shoots for college shooting teams, drawing some of the best (and newest) teams from across the country. I am simply amazed by our athletes. Their dedication and commitment is very clear in our first ever Division I National Title!”
Tom Wondrash, SCTP national director, said, “Great facility, great teams/coaches/athletes/parents and GREAT weather! The SCTP Team worked very hard and thoroughly enjoyed working with these great teams. We are extremely excited and looking forward to next year’s tournament! We received the final score sheet at about 1 p.m. on Sunday, started handing out awards at 1:10 and were finished (waving good-bye) to the teams and athletes by 2 p.m.! It just doesn’t get any better than that for these teams!”
For a full list of results and finishes in all disciplines, please visit www.sssfonline.org and click on “results.”
The SCTP would like to thank the Cardinal Shooting Center for its hard work, Terri Dewitt from the MidwayUSA Foundation and all the parents and teams for attending and supporting our great program.
Parties interested in starting clay target shooting teams with the SCTP, college or high school, can contact any one of the SCTP staff for assistance.
Their information is listed at the bottom of the website.
About 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.
For photos, see their Flickr page.