TUCSON, Ariz. – The Concordia University shooting sports teams got back to action at the ACUI Collegiate Clay Targets Western Super Shoot (Jan. 24-27) held at Tucson Trap and Skeet Club in Tucson, Ariz. Head coach Scott Moniot’s squad emerged with a new school record in American Trap while raking in a bevy of honors on the women’s side. The event featured competitors from institutions such as the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Connors State College, Emmanuel College and Fresno State.
The event featured a much larger field on the men’s side, which has as many as 57 shooters in a given discipline. The women’s side went as deep as 18 competitors (American Skeet). Moniot traveled 17 of his top shooters (14 freshmen or sophomores) to Tucson. It was the team’s first competition since the ACUI Midwest Championships (Nov. 3-4).
As a team, the Bulldogs placed first in the International Conference Championship standings (includes International Skeet and International Trap) and first in International Skeet (out of five competing schools in both categories).
The place finishes in a smaller field do not tell the entire story. Concordia’s shooters put up scores at the ACUI Super Shoot that will make it a player on the national scale.
“We went out there with one goal and that was to get all of these kids experience of what it’s like to shoot that many events at the collegiate level that fast,” Moniot said. “We scheduled out far enough so if kids didn’t perform as well as they hoped, we would have time to break it down and rebuild it to make it a positive before nationals. If they went out and knocked it out of the park then it’s a positive we can go forward with. Out of our 17 kids, we had 12 of them finish in the top 10 – and most of them in multiple events.”
Concordia cleaned up in the smaller women’s field. Erin Lokke, Sarah Schwacher, Rebecca Tierney and Emma Van Donselaar combined to take first place gold in a combined eight events. An accomplished senior, Lokke hit 100 targets in International Skeet and 89 in American Skeet while winning both competitions. As Lokke starred in skeet, Van Donselaar topped the field in the category of Combined American & Sporting Events.
On the men’s side, freshman Damien Stewart led the way. He took first in the Combined American Events (196) category. In that same combination of events, freshman Wyatt Hambly finished ninth (192) out of 54 shooters. Other top 10 finishes among men were produced by Bryon Baca (Sporting Clays), Hambly (American Trap), Mackenze Origer (Super Sporting), Stewart (Combined American & Sporting Events; International Skeet; American Trap) and Colten Uitermarkt (Combined International Events; International Trap).
Contributing to the school record in American Trap were Hambly (98), Stewart (97), Tierney (97), Baca (96) and Malterud (96). All five are just freshmen. Other top individual efforts are listed below.
The season’s most significant event is coming up March 23 – 31 when the top Bulldogs will be in San Antonio, Texas, for the ACUI National Championships.
Team Finishes
1st of 5 in International Conference Championship College School HOA (913)
1st of 5 in International Skeet College Standings (483)
3rd of 6 in American Conference Championship College School HOA (1,566)
3rd of 5 in International Trap College Standings (430)
*Broke a school record in American Trap (484)
Team Top Individuals – International Skeet
Damien Stewart (100) | Erin Lokke (100) | Sarah Schwacher (99) | Colten Uitermarkt (92) | Emily Rasmussen (92)
Team Top Individuals – International Trap
Monica Dale (87) | Colten Uitermarkt (87) | Mackenze Origer (86) | Rebecca Tierney (85) | Erin Lokke (85)
Team Top Individuals – American Skeet
Damien Stewart (99) | Colten Uitermarkt (96) | Wyatt Ericksen (95) | Wyatt Hambly (94) | Thomas Sosso (93)
Team Top Individuals – American Trap
Wyatt Hambly (98) | Damien Stewart (97) | Rebecca Tierney (97) | Bryon Baca (96) | Russell Malterud (96)
Individual Gold Honors
-Erin Lokke – Women’s Combined International Events (185); Women’s American Skeet (89); Women’s International Skeet (100)
-Sarah Schwacher – Women’s Super Sporting (39)
-Damien Stewart – Men’s Combined American Events (196)
-Rebecca Tierney – Women’s Combined American Events (185); Women’s American Trap (97)
-Emma Van Donselaar – Women’s Combined American & Sporting Events (301); Women’s Sporting Clays (86)
Individual Silver Honors
-Monica Dale – Women’s Super Sporting (39); Women’s Sporting Clays (83); Women’s International Trap (87)
-Erin Lokke – Women’s Combined American Events (183)
-Sarah Schwacher – Women’s Combined International Events (180); Women’s International Skeet (99)
-Damien Stewart – Men’s American Skeet (99)
-Rebecca Tierney – Women’s American Skeet (88)
Individual Bronze Honors
-Nicole Breese – Women’s Combined American Events (182)
-Monica Dale – Women’s Combined American & Sporting Events (294)
-Emily Rasmussen – Women’s Combined International Events (167); Women’s International Skeet (92)
-Rebecca Tierney – Women’s International Trap (85)
-Emma Van Donselaar – Women’s Super Sporting (38); Women’s American Skeet (88)