RESULTS – Full IWCC Invite Results | Concordia Results (PDF)
LINCOLN, Neb. – In the final chance to fine-tune its technique and gain confidence prior to the national championships, Concordia University, Nebraska Shooting Sports tested itself in the disciplines of doubles trap and doubles skeet at the Iowa Western Community College Invitational on March 8-9. The Bulldogs came away with a fourth-place HOA (high overall) team placement. Individually, Sam Blevins busted the most targets among Concordia competitors while Katie Welker placed second among all women’s athletes in doubles trap in action that took place at Lincoln Trap & Skeet in Lincoln, Neb.
The event marked the second outing of the spring semester for Head Coach Dylan Owens’ squad. The Bulldogs hosted the Concordia Sporting Invitational a week earlier.
“It’s the first time we’ve done a competition like this,” Owens said. “We normally shoot doubles once in the fall at conference and then we shoot it once in the spring at nationals. Derek (Pollock) at Iowa Western had this idea to do a 200 doubles trap and 200 doubles skeet competition. All of us coaches were all for it. With our invite last week and then Iowa Western, we had as good of a pre-nationals setup as we could get. I told the team that I wanted to go out and learn something that we can take back this next week before nationals. I saw a lot of our athletes build confidence. Shoutout to Katie for winning second place women’s doubles trap. She shot really well.”
At the Iowa Western Invite, Concordia shot alongside familiar foes such as Fort Hays State University, Hastings College and Midland University. Fort Hays State and Midland earned the top two place finishes, respectively, in the team HOA standings. In addition to placing fourth overall, the Bulldogs shot the fourth highest totals in doubles trap and doubles skeet. All competitors shot a total of 400 targets over the two-day event.
In doubles trap, Welker, a junior from Hamill, S.D., cracked 186 targets (out of 200), seven behind the top female competitor at the event. From an HOA perspective, the top Concordia performers at the Iowa Western Invite were Blevins (364), Breyer Meeks (358), Welker (357), Devin Harris (354) and Buchannan Tietjen (354). The team’s top 10 was rounded out by Carter McKenna (347), Brennen Stones (327), Lane Schoff (323), Rayne Larrison (320) and Kaylee Hinton (312). Sixteen Bulldogs were part of the field at Lincoln Trap & Skeet.
During the week of spring break on campus, the Bulldogs will be making frequent use of Oak Creek Sporting Club. Concordia is looking to improve upon last season’s seventh-place nationals finish (within the Division 2 breakdown).
Said Owens, “We’re preparing all week. We’ll be shooting skeet and sporting practice at Oak Creek on Monday and Thursday. We also plan to be in Lincoln for trap and doubles trap practice. We have a long week ahead of us for practice. We’re excited. The schedule is looking great for next week. It should be nice weather.”
Owens and the group of national qualifying Bulldogs will leave town on Saturday while destined for San Antonio, Texas. The National Shooting Complex in San Antonio will serve as the host venue for the 2025 ACUI Collegiate Clay Target National Championships. The first day of competition for Concordia will be Tuesday, March 18. For full details on the national championship, check out the ACUI’s event website linked here: https://acuiclays.org/event/2025-collegiate-clay-target-championships/.