SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Seventeen competitors represented the Concordia University shooting sports team at the 2019 ACUI Collegiate Clay Target Championships. The annual event took place at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas, March 25-30. When the dust settled in the heat of Texas, the Bulldogs finished fourth high over all (HOA) out of 13 teams in the “Division 2” grouping. Senior Erin Lokke completed her collegiate career with an impressive placement of second HOA among women.
This was the first time head coach Scott Moniot presided over Concordia at the national championships. His team cracked 2,339 targets on the HOA team leaderboard, finishing behind only Fort Hays State University (2,462), Martin Methodist College (2,452) and University of the Ozarks (2,354). The performance marked a significant improvement from the 10th place HOA finish in 2018 (2,211 targets).
“We have been building the whole season for this event,” Moniot said. “We knew this year was going to be a challenge going from a roster of 14 and more than doubling it and having 16 incoming freshmen. Our mantra has been, ‘We’re here to do a job.’ That applies academically and on the range. The kids went down there and knocked it out of the park. The goal was to finish top 10. We had to be the youngest team there. I really leaned heavily on seniors Erin Lokke and Ethan Cradick. Erin went down there on a mission. With this young of a team, it’s going be exciting going forward.”
Lokke, a native of Saint Francis, Minn., has set a high standard of success for individuals in the shooting sports program. Not only was she second HOA among women, she was the female national champion in the category of combined international open events by way of shooting an 86 in international skeet and a 94 in international trap. As a silver medalist in the women’s international skeet championship (ISO), Lokke earned a spot on the National ACUI/USAS All-Collegiate International Team, an ACUI/USA Shooting All-Collegiate team jacket and entry into the USA Shooting National Championships.
As part of that international shootout that Lokke took silver in, freshman Emma Van Donselaar earned bronze. With that bronze medal, Van Donselaar joins Lokke on the National ACUI/USAS All-Collegiate International Team. Emily Rasmussen and Sarah Schwacher also placed top 30. Van Donselaar was also 14th in the women’s combined international events. In the women’s American all-around, Lokke placed seventh and Nicole Breese placed 12th.
Broken down by discipline, the Bulldogs placed third in both American trap (484) and international trap (280), fourth in American skeet (482), seventh in international skeet (255) and eighth in super sporting (435) and sporting clays (403). They set new school records in five of those six disciplines. Across those events, Concordia’s top shooters were Lokke in American skeet (97) and super sporting (90), Wyatt Hambly in American trap (99) and American skeet (97), Colten Uitermarkt in international skeet (87), Wyatt Eriksen in international trap (96) and Breese and Hambly in super clays (84). Eriksen won a shoot-off to earn a podium finish in international trap (third place).
In terms of HOA, the top five for the Bulldogs were Lokke (538), Hambly (522), Mackenze Origer (519), Uitermarkt (510) and Breese (507). The only female competitor to beat out Lokke HOA was Megan Harrington of Texas A&M University. Harrington cracked 559 targets. Hambly checked in at No. 104 HOA amongst the men’s field, which featured 534 shooters who qualified for the HOA leaderboard.
Hambly was the men’s standout with a top three team score in every event. He shot 97 in American skeet, 99 in American trap, 84 in sporting clays, 86 in international skeet, 88 in super sporting and 90 in international trap. In addition, Hambly tied for ninth place in men’s combined American events and shared 10th place in the men’s American trap open event.
Lokke leaves quite a legacy as someone who has aspirations of competing on the international level beyond her college career. Lokke wound up towards the top of the leaderboards for nearly every possible category at the ACUI National Championships.
“She set the standard very high,” Moniot said. “She put the bar high and she did it with style. I think it challenged a lot of our kids to see that if they work hard enough they will have an opportunity to go out like that. I think that’s always going to be a standard that will motivate everyone.”
The 2018-19 Bulldog shooting sports season is now in the books. Moniot’s squad competed in nine events throughout the campaign, which included its own Bulldog Sporting Classic (Oct. 6-7).