California Shooters Burrows and Carroll Top Fall Selection
OutdoorHub 10.15.12
USA Shooting’s Fall Selection Match came to a close Sunday in Kerrville, Texas, but not before a pair of California shooters earned their titles in international trap. Brian Burrows (Fallbrook, Calif.) and Ashley Carroll (Solvang, Calif.) represented the Golden State to win their respective divisions.
The Fall Selection Match was shot in two phases with the skeet and double trap disciplines having marched to the range October 5-7 with Haley Dunn (St. Joe, Texas) and Vincent Hancock (Eatonton, Ga.) taking top honors in skeet while Billy Crawford (Johnstown, Ohio) was first in double trap. World Cup slots are being awarded from this match for the first two International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cups of 2013.
Burrows backed up his first national title by winning the autumn showdown at the Hill Shooting Sports Center by connecting on 258/275 targets. However, junior shooter and former U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete Matt Gossett (Springville, Ala.) wouldn’t make it easy. After 250 targets, Burrows and Gossett were tied with 234 hits heading to the event final. Burrows would supplant Gossett in the end on the strength of his finals round 24/25 while Gossett managed to hit 22.
The remaining finalists included: Collin Wietfeldt (Hemlock, Mich.), 250; Casey “Jake” Wallace (Castaic, Calif.), 248; Shane Herman (Peyton, Colo.), 245; and Dakotah Richardson (Godley, Texas), 244.
In Women’s Trap, Carroll and Kimberly Bowers (Lafayette, Calif.) lead a junior parade that featured six junior shooters among the top-10 finishers. Carroll and Bowers were separated by three targets in the end of three days of shooting, 252 to 249. They’re hot shooting from beginning to end allowed them to distance themselves from high-profile shooters like two-time National Champion Rachael Heiden (Clinton, Mich.), four-time Junior Olympic Champion Miranda Wilder (Diana, Texas) and two-time Olympian Corey Cogdell (Eagle River, Alaska) as none of the other competitors came with seven birds of Bowers. Heiden, Wilder and Cogdell would secure third, fourth and fifth respectively, while another junior shooter, Erin Danhausen (Swartz Creek, Mich.), rounded out the top six finalists.
Shooters who have grown accustomed to the current shooting format for the Olympic-shooting sports will savor the Fall Selection Match which was shot under the current 2008-12 ISSF rules as several changes will be in effect starting in 2013. For a look at the format changes likely to be adopted at the November ISSF meeting, click here.
The Fall Selection Match concludes a robust shotgun schedule for USA Shooting’s top shotgun competitors that also included World Cups, Olympic Trials, National Championships, Junior Olympic Championships and World Cup Finals. The 2013 World Cup season will kick-off in Acapulco, Mexico, where the first International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup Stage in Shotgun will take place March 15-24 on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
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