Mowrer and Navy Clench Titles in Open Air Pistol Championship

The last day of the NRA Intercollegiate Pistol Championships saw all shooters assemble in the USAMU’s Pool indoor range for the final championship of the week, Open Air Pistol.

The United States Naval Academy had its eyes on a fourth team championship to take back to Annapolis and Nick Mowrer, the senior for Pikes Peak, looked to once again sweep the individual championships and retire from the collegiate championships on a sweet note.

Shot from a distance of ten meters, the Open Air Pistol Championship’s course of fire is fairly straight forward – 60 shots over one hour and 45 minutes.

Ten meters might not be very far, but trying to make 60 extremely precise shots turns the match into one of attrition.

Are your shots becoming less accurate because your arm is getting tired? You better hope the fatigue is afflicting everyone else too. Shoot a 7 and your opponents can gain on you or strengthen their lead. Every shot counts.

After the last shooter took their 60th shot, numbers were crunched and the finalists announced. Of no surprise, Nick Mowrer was at the first point with a substantial lead of 16 points.

Nick would set his pistol down the 2012 Open Air champion and although he was in no real danger of losing the title, he still took the opportunity to make every shot count in the finals and posted a 98.4, the highest score there as well.

Mowrer, who is training for a spot on the USA Shooting Team in the 2012 London Olympics, takes every shot seriously.

“You can go into the finals ahead of everybody, but it still takes a lot of concentration and drive to actually push through it,” Mowrer said. “I still go for it every single point.”

Also achieving its goal was Navy, who took the team championship by 18 points over Texas A&M.

With the books officially closed on the 2012 Intercollegiate Pistol Championships, it was time to clean up and head to the awards ceremony, where the top awards would be announced in addition to this year’s NRA All-Americans in pistol.

Scores below:

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