RESULTS: Concordia Only | Full Results
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Eighteen Bulldogs competed in six disciplines over five days (March 18-22) at the 2025 ACUI Collegiate Clay Target National Championships at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas. When the bullets stopped flying, Concordia University, Nebraska Shooting Sports placed seventh out of 14 teams in the Division 2 breakdown of the national championships. The Bulldogs cracked 2,740 targets towards the team high overall (HOA) leaderboard while led individually by graduate student Sam Blevins.
Head Coach Dylan Owens’ Bulldogs came within one target of sixth place in what marked the program’s second-straight seventh-place nationals finish. The top teams within Division 2 in 2025 were William Penn University (2,840), Fort Hays State University (2,836) and Hillsdale College (2,822).
“We ended up in seventh by one bird, which is kind of a tough thing,” Owens said. “We had the opportunity that if we had shot a little better in super and sporting clays, I feel like we would have possibly ended up in the top five. Things sometimes lay the way they do. I’m proud of everybody. We had some really good scores throughout the week. We had a lot of individual athletes who shot personal bests.”
Pleasant but breezy conditions greeted the competitors throughout the week in San Antonio. By the Saturday of the national competition, the Bulldogs positioned themselves to be involved in five shoot-offs for potential top-three placements within specific disciplines. Blevins emerged with a third-place claim in men’s open trap and Katie Welker did the same in women’s open trap. In other shoot-offs, Breyer Meeks (super sporting and skeet), Devin Harris (skeet) and Kaylee Hinton (doubles skeet) fell just short of earning medals within Open Class.
Concordia’s best shooters by discipline are listed below. The team’s top scores were posted by Harris and Meeks in skeet (99), Blevins and Welker in trap (99), Harris in doubles skeet (94), Mason Ward in doubles trap (95) and sporting (83) and Meeks in super sporting (95). The Bulldogs’ team scores by category were 484 in skeet, 489 in trap, 458 in doubles skeet, 461 in doubles trap, 400 in sporting and 448 in super sporting.
From an HOA individual perspective, Concordia was paced by Blevins (545), Harris (544), Meeks (542), Ward (542), Carter McKenna (528) and Brennen Stones (528). The rest of the team’s top 10 was rounded out by Welker (521), Buchannan Tietjen (518), Hinton (517) and Lane Schoff (474). Out of all 630 men’s competitors at the national championships (including all divisions), Blevins tied for 76th overall. Meanwhile, Welker tied for 37th among the 144 women’s athletes in the field.
The journey to San Antonio included a stop in Oklahoma for a meal at the house of Gore and Julie Gaines, parents to Concordia student-athlete Colby Gaines. The team also went to a church service in the area. The national championships closed out the 2024-25 season for the majority of Concordia’s roster. The campaign included six events in the fall and three this spring.
Said Owens, “We had some highs and lows. We struggled with some things early in the season that we don’t normally struggle with. You have to have consistently good scores in skeet and trap. Towards the end of the fall, we were really picking up on those things. The home shoot, I feel like we had some really good scores come out of that. We started out doing really well at nationals before a little bit of a tough finish on that last day. All-in-all, I’m pretty pleased with the season. Any competitive person would say they always want to do better. A lot of our team feels that. Those who are returning are ready to keep putting in the work.”
Concordia leaders by category – 2025 National Championships
Skeet – 484
1. Devin Harris – 99
1. Breyer Meeks – 99
3. Sam Blevins – 96
3. Buchannan Tietjen – 96
5. Brennan Stones – 94
Trap – 489
1. Sam Blevins – 99
1. Katie Welker – 99
3. Kaylee Hinton – 97
3. Brennen Stones – 97
3. Mason Ward – 97
Doubles Skeet – 458
1. Devin Harris – 94
2. Kaylee Hinton – 92
2. Breyer Meeks – 92
4. Sam Blevins – 90
4. Carter McKenna – 90
Doubles Trap – 461
1. Mason Ward – 95
2. Sam Blevins – 93
3. Devin Harris – 92
3. Katie Welker – 92
5. Carter McKenna – 89
Sporting – 400
1. Mason Ward – 83
2. Sam Blevins – 81
2. Breyer Meeks – 81
4. Carter McKenna – 78
5. Buchannan Tietjen – 77
Super Sporting – 448
1. Breyer Meeks – 95
2. Brennen Stones – 91
3. Devin Harris – 90
4. Sam Blevins – 86
4. Katie Welker – 86
Though the national championships are in the books, the Bulldogs have one event remaining on the 2024-25 schedule. The program will host the Concordia Bulldog International Tournament in Grand Island, Neb., April 12-13. Select athletes who compete in international events will take part in the competition.