Full Results | Concordia Results (PDF)
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. – For the second year in a row, Concordia University Shooting Sports has claimed a third-place conference finish. In competition at Lincoln County Wildlife Gun Club in North Platte, Neb., this past weekend (Sept. 29 – Oct. 1), the Bulldogs cracked 1,849 targets towards the high overall leaderboard while duking it out with familiar rivals Fort Hays State University (1,893) and Midland University (1,889) at the top of the pack. Athletes from 11 different institutions tested themselves in the disciplines of trap, skeet, doubles trap and sporting clays as part of the event.
Head Coach Dylan Owens’ squad got starring individual performances from the likes of senior Claire Kee (Gibbon, Neb.) and sophomore Kaylee Hinton (Hiawatha, Kan.). Kee earned the women’s conference title in sporting clays while Hinton took the women’s conference crown in trap.
“We really had one goal coming the weekend as a team, particularly with sporting clays – to shoot five scores above 85,” Owens said. “If we could do that, it would put us in a more competitive position in terms of high overall. We fell a little bit short, but it was nice to stay in the top three of the conference. We do feel like we’re capable of better. Individually speaking, we had people like Claire and Kaylee stand out. They’ve put in a lot of work.”
Kee ran perfect scores through stations 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 in sporting clays. She wound up with an 88 as the Bulldogs’ top performer in that event. Meanwhile, Hinton knocked out 99 out of 100 in trap as one of seven total competitors to shoot at least a 99 (two men shot perfect 100s). As part of the awards announcements, Kee landed on the all-conference team while teammates Jack Nelson and Wayne Moore were essentially honorable mention selections. Concordia’s Rayne Larrison garnered all-conference freshman team accolades.
Broken down by discipline, the Bulldogs shot 427 in sporting clays, 480 in skeet, 487 in trap and 455 in doubles trap, placing third in each one. The top teams were Fort Hays State in sporting and skeet and Midland in trap and doubles trap. The final top six in the HOA team standings fell in line identically as compared to the 2022 conference championships. Fort Hays affectively defended its championship. Concordia won the conference title as recently as 2020.
The top five for the Bulldogs at the 2023 conference championships from an HOA perspective were Nelson (365), Moore (364), Sam Blevins (363), Devin Harris (361) and Breyer Meeks (360). Nelson tied for ninth HOA individually out of more than 160 individuals. Kee turned in a 355 HOA total (third best among all women’s athletes) with a 97 in skeet to go along with her title in sporting clays. Nelson recorded a 94 in doubles trap to pace Concordia. In making the all-conference freshman team, Larrison shot 88 in trap, 91 in skeet, 80 in doubles trap and 74 in sporting.
While the performances were solid overall, Owens sees the potential for improved scores going forward. Said Owens, “We had some people who are normally up there struggle a bit this past weekend. It’s hard to stay at the top every single week because there are so many variables you can’t control. There were some moments where we had a lack of focus. We’re going to spend some time this week refocusing on the standard that we want to set as a team. I felt like we came out really strong at the beginning of the semester. I know we can push for greatness again.”
The Bulldogs will return to action this Saturday and Sunday for the Hastings Bronco Invitational to be held at Heartland Public Shooting Park in Grand Island, Neb. It will be one of three events remaining on the fall 2023 slate.