Winter Airgun Recap
Young Athletes Highlight the 2012 Winter Airgun Championships
The 2012 Winter Airgun Championships were a welcome match to start the winter.
Held
in Colorado Springs, Colo., this year’s event featured some of the top airgun shooters in the nation along with some international challengers. Over 225 competi- tors including seven Olympians and a total of 34 shooters representing USA Shooting’s National, Junior and Develop- ment Teams competed over three days in airgun events including Men’s/Women’s Air Rifl e and Air Pistol.
Featuring three Olympians
including Sarah Scherer (Worster, Mass.), Amanda Furrer (Spo- kane, Wash.) and Italy’s Petra Zubasling, the Women’s Air Rifl e fi nal highlighted the fi rst day of shooting. Tied at 499/500 after qualifying, Scherer and Zubasling dueled it out on the Olympic Training Center grounds. Still tied after the third of a 10 shot fi nal, Zubasling, a West Virginia Univer- sity Rifl e Team standout, pulled ahead with only one shot regis- tering below a 10.6 the rest of the way. Scherer, who made the Olympic fi nal in this event and fi nished seventh overall, would fi nish second while 16-year-old Elizabeth Gratz (Sigel, Ill.) held her own with an impressive 103.4 fi nal to fi nish third. In Men’s Air Rifl e, National
Junior Team member and Uni- versity of Kentucky rifl e standout Connor Davis (Shelbyville,
Ky.)
was the top fi nisher on the fi rst day after posting a 594/600 in qualifying and shooting a 103.7 fi nal. Dempster Christenson (Sioux
Falls, S.D.) fi nished second while Elijah Ellis (Kingsport, Tenn.), a teammate of Davis’ both at Ken- tucky and on the National Junior Team, earned a spot on the podi- um in third. Six of the top-eight fi nishers were current NCAA rifl e shooters representing Kentucky, Army, Alaska-Fairbanks and the United States Air Force Academy. In Men’s 10m Air Pistol, Will
Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho) out- distanced his nearest competi- tor, Brian Beaman (Selby, S.D.), a fourth-place fi nisher in this event at the 2008 Olympic Games, by 5.4 points overall.
Shooting a
582 in qualifying, Brown went into the fi nal with an almost in- surmountable seven-point ad- vantage. Finishing third was John Ennis (Simi Valley, Calif.) followed by 2012 Olympian Nick Mowrer (Butte, Mont.) in fourth. Mowrer qualifi ed for London in the Men’s 50m Free Pistol event but has stated his desire to improve in the air pistol event this coming quad.
Backed by a strong 101.2
fi nal in Women’s Air Pistol, Teresa Meyer (Dearborn, Mich.) came from behind to take the top spot. Shooting a 376 and trailing by two to Kylie Gagnon (Bozeman, Mont.), Meyer used her vast ex- perience to out-shoot her fi nals competitors by over four points. Gagnon, meanwhile, slipped in the fi nal to shoot 89.9 to drop to fourth. Courtney Anthony (Lexing- ton, Neb.) would fi nish second followed by Lydia Paterson (Kan- sas City, Kan.) in third. Davis delivered his second straight big win on day two in
44 USA Shooting News | Spring 2013
Men’s 10m Air Rifl e. Entering the fi nal in third, two points behind leader Ryan Anderson (Wasilla, Alaska), Davis shot a 103.2 fi nal for the top position. Christenson fi nished third, one-tenth behind Anderson for third. In Men’s 10m Air Pistol,
Beaman would edge out Brown in the fi nal on the second day. Beaman entered the fi nal one point ahead of Brown and locked in the win with 100.7 points in the fi nal. Brown fi nished second with 677.6 points.
The bronze
medalist was Mowrer with 675.3 points.
Zublasing continued to
dominate in Women’s 10m Air Rifl e. She fi nished with a one- point lead on the competition at 499.8 points. The National Ju- nior Team’s young Gratz showed up in a big way with a 104.4 in the fi nal to jump from sixth to second place. She was followed by Meredith Carpentier (Colorado
Springs, Colo.) of the U.S. Air Force Academy with 497.2 points. The National Development Anthony entered the
Team’s
Women’s 10m Air Pistol fi nal with a six-point lead on the com- petition and didn’t give an inch. Anthony fi red the highest fi nal of 97.6 points for the win. Enkelejda Shehaj (Naples, Fla.) was a point behind Libby Callahan (Colum- bia, S.C.) at 371, but gained ground in the fi nal with 96.8 points to fi nish second.
Calla-
han rounded out the top three at 467.6 points.
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