ACUI Upper West Coast Conference Championships
OutdoorHub 10.17.13
The Association of College Unions International (ACUI) Upper West Coast Conference Championships took place this past weekend, Oct. 11–13, at the Spokane Gun Club in Greenacres, Wash. and the Double Barrel Ranch Sporting Clays in Rockford, Wash. This event kicked-off the 2013-2014 Shotgun Bowl Series.
New this year, ACUI invited local high school juniors and seniors to shoot in a High School Division. The high school students shot alongside college students from North Idaho College, Eastern Washington University, and Northwest College. ACUI awarded endowment money for college team High Overall ($5000), Runner up ($3500) and Third place ($2500). Endowment awards for the High School Division were $2500, $1750, and $1250. Each participating college team also received $5000 and the high school teams received $2500 in endowment money. All total ACUI gave out $35,500 in endowment funds.
Frank Vogt, from Northwest College, scored an 83 to win men’s college sporting clays. Vogt’s brother, Vince, also from Northwest College, placed second with a score of 82. Grant Thurman, from North Idaho College, and Rustin Julander both scored an 80 and competed in a shoot-off for third place. In the shoot-off, Grant broke 3 additional targets and won third place. In the women’s division, Larkin Henkel, the lone college woman from North Idaho College took first place scoring 62 targets.
In the High School Division, Tucker Simpson from Woodland High School, took first place with a score of 75. His teammate, Austin Goff placed second with a score of 70. Alex Winger and Jordan Musgrove, both from Woodland High School, tied for third and in the shoot-off Jordan broke 4 more targets to take third. On the women’s side of the High School Division, Abbi Denmark from Freeman High School took first place with a score of 79.
In the college men’s American skeet competition, the North Idaho team swept the awards. Grant Thurman took home the first place medal with a score of 94. John Thurman and teammate Nick Higgs tied with a score of 93. John Thurman beat his teammate scoring 93+2 in the shoot-off, just ahead of Higgs’ score of 93+1. Larkin Henkel, from North Idaho College won first place with a score of 82.
Tucker Simpson, from Woodland High School, continued his strong shooting taking first place in skeet in the men’s High School Division with a score of 77. His teammates from Woodland High School, Austin Goff and Jordan Musgrove, took second and third with scores of 74 and 72 respectively. Abbi Denmark from Freeman High School had a great day shooting and took first place with a score of 96.
On the final day of competition, Anthony Palin from North Idaho College scored a weekend high score of 98 and took first place in men’s college American trap. Vince Vogt, from Northwest College took home second place with a score of 96. Rounding out the top there, John Thurman, North Idaho College, placed third, with a score of 95. In the women’s competition, Larkin Henkel from North Idaho College took the first place medal, scoring 92 targets. Competing in their only event for the weekend, Chelsea Willett from Northwest College, and Mackenzi Brunner from Eastern Washington University took second and third with scores of 76 and 55 respectively.
In the High School Division of trap shooting, Jordan Musgrove from Woodland High School placed first with a score of 93. Teammate Tucker Simpson scored one less target and took second place. Zach VanSoest from Freeman High School, competed in his only event of the weekend and placed third with a score of 85. Finally, Abbi Denmark, Freeman High School, took first place in the high school women’s trap with a score of 88.
John Thurman from North Idaho College made a strong final push on Saturday and Sunday, winning the men’s college High Overall award with a score of 266. With a score of 236, the women’s college High Overall award went to Larkin Henkel from North Idaho College.
In the High School Division, Tucker Simpson from Woodland High School won the men’s high school High Overall with a total weekend score of 244. Abbi Denmark finished a superb weekend of shooting with a score of 263 and took home the women’s high school High Overall.
Northwest College completed their weekend by taking the college team High Overall award with a score of 1259. The team Runner up award went home with the North Idaho College team, who scored a combined 1228. The men from Woodland High School took the high school team High Overall with a combined score of 1068.
An invitation from Spokane Gun Club president Brian Martin provided everyone with a fun game to end the weekend. Teams of two were invited to shoot a simultaneous triple target thrown from a trap house. The pair had two shells each to break their outside targets before moving to the center target. ACUI provided endowment money for the top five places. Cheers and friendly banter followed each round and all agreed it was a great way to cap the weekend.
ACUI has organized the collegiate clay target championships for 46 years. The Clay Target Collegiate Shotgun Bowl Series was created to provide additional opportunities for competition closer to participating campuses, thereby allowing full team roster participation. To learn more about ACUI, call 4422.ACUI.CT (442.222.8428) or visit www.acui.org/claytargets
For more information, please contact Jake Dawes, recreational and leisure activities coordinator, at 812.245.8058 or jadawes@acui.org or Russ Arnold at 817.690.6194 or rga@ss-consulting.org.
