Here's a Dragon trap shooting update from George Johnson from this past Monday!
The Pine City Dragon High School Trap Shooting Team competed in the state
tournament in Alexandria on Monday, June 17. Skies were cloudy; the temperature was
a cool 62 degrees accompanied by a mild east wind which made for optimal shooting
conditions. Each athlete in the tournament shot 100 shells at the elusive clay targets.
The team was led by freshman Austin Gariepy with 96 out of 100 clays, and senior Tyler
Mohr, who had a 94. Both were top ten shooters for the team during the season, and
both also shot perfect rounds of 25 consecutive hits. Joining them hitting 25 in a row
was junior Macie Babolik. Evan Doenz shot an 88 followed by Gavin Broz with an 87.
Brody Tayerle saved his season best for the tournament, hitting 86 targets—23 points
above his season average. Sophomore Darien Hall had the team’s sixth highest score
with an 85; he was followed by Milo Babolik and Talen Reitan with 81 hits. Jaeggar
Anderson shot a remarkable 22 points above his season average for a 78. Rounding
out the top shooters for the Dragons were Caleb Johnson with 77 and Colton Mohr with
76.
Many of the 33 state attendees shot well above their season averages. Notable among
those not mentioned already were Landyn Baumert, who shot 26 above his average
and Gage Carroll, who has shown remarkable improvement this season beating his
average by 43. Jennavieve Hallen and Owen Severson shot 22 above their season
averages, and Preston Thompson beat his by 23 targets.
A total of 20 teams represented their schools in Class 8A. The Dragon’s Novice Team,
which consists of shooters who average under 14 per round, finished 6 th in Class 8A.
The Junior Varsity team, which consists of shooters with an average of 14 to 18.99,
finished 11 th . The competition was fierce. For example, Gariepy missed only 4 clays out
of 100, and he finished 22 nd out of 390 shooters. Tyler Mohr’s 94 was good for 52 nd
place.
Peyton Dickey, a seventh grader in her first year with the team, said she likes to shoot
trap “because I can challenge myself.” She and her teammates did an excellent job of
meeting the challenge of a sport that requires discipline, focus, and persistence. The
twenty volunteer coaches who sacrifice their time to work with the kids felt richly
rewarded by the smiles on the faces of so many shooters who have been able to meet
the challenges of trap shooting this season. Thirty of the state entrants have the
opportunity to return next year. With so many of them showing so much improvement
this season, the future looks bright for the Dragon Trap Team.
