BRAINARD, Neb. – A mini shoot over the weekend (Sept. 12-13) provided the Concordia Shooting Sports Program the opportunity to open up the 2020-21 season. The Bulldogs had not competed at an event since the Doane Invitational back on March 7-8. This particular event matched Concordia against Midland and Iowa Western College in a triangular. Day one of the shoot took place in Omaha before shifting to the home of the Bulldogs (Oak Creek Sporting Club) in Brainard, Neb., on day two.
While cracking 1,626 targets as a team, Concordia placed second behind Midland (1,641). Iowa Western (1,614) placed third. Junior Russell Malterud hit all 100 targets in trap as the lone perfect performance of the entire weekend. Concordia entered 28 total competitors into the event.
“It was nice to be able to get out there and go head-to-head with an opponent,” Moniot said. “It’s been a long time since the kids had a chance to really compete. One of the highlights was Russell Malterud shooting 100 straight in trap. That was pretty exciting for him to come out with that kind of focus. Our freshmen came out and performed really strong this weekend. Everybody shot good scores, but I think we have the potential to do more. All in all, I’m pleased with the weekend. We have some things to shore up and work on.”
While Malterud starred in trap, the top Bulldogs in terms of high overall (HOA) were Wyatt Hambly (323), Erin Lokke (321), Nicole Breese (316), Wyatt Eriksen (313) and Rebecca Tierney (308). Among females, Lokke, Breese and Tierney went 1-2-3 on the HOA leaderboard. Hambly placed second HOA among men behind only Midland’s Dino Manuel (326).
On the women’s side, Concordia also swept the top spots in each of the disciplines courtesy of Lokke in trap (98) and sporting clays (87), Breese in skeet (98) and Tierney in double trap (42). As a team, the Bulldogs placed first in sporting clays (433) with the help of Eriksen (89), Hambly (89), Lokke (87) and Monica Dale (85). In double trap, Colten Uitermarkt posted the team’s top score of 48.
A much larger event is coming up this Saturday and Sunday at the Midland Ice Out in Lincoln. The first shots are scheduled to be fired at 9 a.m. CT on both days. Moniot expects the field to include competitors from eight or nine different schools.
Says Moniot, “We’re getting ready for another big event. This will give us a real good test to see where we’re really at. We don’t have a lot of time to fix things because we go to the conference championships the next week (Sept. 25-27) in North Platte. I think we have a good strategy for what we need to focus on this week.”