U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Airgun
Spurgeon, Beard, Brown and Anthony Emerge Victorious During Part 1 of U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Airgun
All the proof of what’s great about the shooting sports was on display dur- ing part one of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Airgun taking place at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, December 4-6. Over 430 athletes com-
peted at the event formally known as the Winter Airgun &KDPSLRQVKLSV ZLWK À YH WR tal Olympic spots available including two in Men’s Air Ri- Á H DQG RQH HDFK LQ :RPHQ·V $LU 5LÁ H 0HQ·V $LU 3LVWRO DQG Women’s Air Pistol. The two-part Olympic Tri-
als included three straight days of competition fea- WXULQJ WKUHH TXDOLÀ HUV DQG three separate Finals. Each day’s qualifying scores and SRLQWV IURP WKH HYHQW À QDOV were added to each compet- itor’s score to get a cumula- tive total. The top-10 partici- pants in each discipline now DGYDQFH WR WKH À QDO VWDJH RI Airgun Team Trials next June ZKHUH À YH 2O\PSLF VSRWV ZLOO be determined using three TXDOLÀ FDWLRQ URXQGV SOXV three Finals. No Team spots ZHUH VHFXUHG GXULQJ WKH À UVW stage of these Olympic Team Trials.
Men’s Air Rifl e Three collegiate competi-
tors showcased their airgun skills with West Virginia se-
Seventeen-year-old Rhi-
nior Garrett Spurgeon (Can- ton, Missouri) moving to the head of class this round. Spurgeon’s consistency and WZR VHFRQG SODFH À QLVKHV LQ the Finals helped earn him an 8.7 point victory. “I feel pretty good con- sidering I came into this weekend off a couple lows from some of our recent NCAA matches,” Spurgeon said. “Really my goal com- ing in was to get back up to where I’m capable of being and be more consistent, and I showed I could do that. Going to the Olympics is a dream of every shooter, so to be in the position I am right now is very special.” North Carolina State ju-
nior Lucas Kozeniesky (Fair- fax, Virginia) established a name for himself at this HYHQW +H À QLVKHG VHFRQG overall and also claimed top Junior honors behind three À QDOV YLFWRULHV Despite not making the
day three Final, Murray State sophomore Ivan Roe (Man- hattan, Montana) still was good enough to earn the third overall ranking.
30 USA Shooting News | Year in Review 2015
Women’s Air Rifl e Quota earner Sarah
Beard (Danville, Indiana) earned a 1.9 point win after the event’s best competi- tive battle. The comeback of Olympian Sarah Scherer (Woburn, Massachusetts) helped amp up the intensity along with several top junior performers. Scherer actu- DOO\ ZRQ WZR RI WKH WKUHH À nals, but Beard had the top overall qualifying score and À QLVKHG À UVW VHFRQG DQG third in each of three Finals. “I’m exhausted, but very
excited,” Beard said. “It was a really good match and I was happy to see a lot of really good scores posted by several different people. It’s always good when the competition is pretty intense because you always have to be mentally into it. If you let your guard down once, you might get eaten alive. This match has helped me to understand how to take the good shots with the bad shots. I still have a long ways to go to where I feel I can compete and earn an Olym- pic medal.”
ann Travis (Poolville, Tex- as) was a consistent force throughout having earned the top qualifying score on two of the days to ensure her the third-place position. Those marks, aided by three Finals wins, led her to a dominating win in the Junior division as well with 14.9 points separating her from VHFRQG SODFH À QLVKHU 0LQG\ Miles (Weatherford, Texas). Virginia Thrasher (Spring- À HOG 9LUJLQLD ZDV WKLUG Seven Performance Stan-
dard Scores (PSS) of 417 or greater were posted in the discipline.
Men’s Air Pistol The big score Will Brown
(Twin Falls, Idaho) was VHHNLQJ À QDOO\ FDPH RQ WKH HYHQW·V À QDO GD\ DQG LW PHDQW a robust 17-point degree of separation between him and his nearest competitor for this event. A world-class qualifying score of 587 was ultimately the biggest differ- ence in this match. Winning all three Finals didn’t hurt either. His qualifying total on the last day was 11 points better than his nearest com- petitor. The U.S. Army Marksman-
ship Unit’s James Hender- VRQ 0LGODQG *HRUJLD À Q ished second followed by Jay Shi (Phoenix, Arizona).
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