National Champions Crowned in Men’s and Women’s Air Pistol, Prone Rifle
OutdoorHub 06.27.14
The USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle/Pistol continued today with titles awarded in Men’s and Women’s Prone Rifle and Air Pistol at the Home of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit in Fort Benning, Georgia.
Along with medals and berths on the National or Junior National Teams at stake, these Championships hold an additional significance this year as they also serve as a Selection Match for Junior and non-Olympic events for the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Championships in Granada, Spain in September.
Seven more Junior athletes secured spots on the Rifle and Pistol teams that will compete by virtue of winning medals in Men’s Prone Rifle and Men’s and Women’s Air Pistol.
In Junior Men’s Prone Rifle, National Champion Remington Lyman (Meriden, Connecticut) will be joining silver medalist Garrett Spurgeon (Canton, Missouri) and bronze medalist Tim Sherry (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) on the team. Spurgeon and Sherry already secured their tickets to Spain as part of the Junior Men’s Three-Position Rifle team.
The Junior Women’s Air Pistol team will have some firepower on it as well with Junior National Champion Lydia Paterson (Kansas City, Kansas), silver medalist Helen Oh (Walnut, California) and bronze medalist Taylor Gallegos (Prosper, Texas).
Paterson, 17, was one of the youngest National Team members ever by virtue of last year’s runner-up finish at Nationals in Women’s Air Pistol and had already qualified for the U.S. Team in the Open division at the previous selection match, but declined the spot to focus on Junior competition.
World Championships will be a family affair on the Men’s Air Pistol team as Junior National Champion Wyatt Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho) joins the team with his brother, Will, who will compete in the Open division. Also making the Junior team is silver medalist Alex Chichkov (Temple Terrace, Florida) and bronze medalist Justin Ahn (Diamond Bar, California).
Women’s Prone Rifle competitors in the Junior and Open divisions for World Championships will also be selected at these Championships. In the Open division, Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana) defended her National Champion title with today’s win. Beard has won five National titles throughout her career (four in the Open division, one in Junior).
Finishing second today was Reya Kempley (Farmington, New York), who edged out 2012 Olympian Amanda Furrer (Spokane, Washington) for the silver medal. Kempley and Furrer were tied at the end of Qualification and placement was determined by “inner tens” – inner tens are only used in tie-breaking situations and are based on the number of hits to a smaller, concentric ring inside of the ten ring on a target. Kempley beat out Furrer over the two days, 73 to 71. Women’s Prone Rifle is a non-Olympic event and thus Finals were not contested.
Beard, Kempley and Furrer have already secured spots on the World Championships team competing in other Rifle events.
Katie Bridges (Kingsland, Texas) won the Junior Women’s Prone Rifle title, finishing just .9 points behind Kempley and Furrer. The silver medal would go to Deanna Binnie (Hollsopple, Pennsylvania), who also placed fourth in smallbore at this year’s NCAA National Championships. The bronze medal went to Allison Villa (Oak View, California).
The Women’s and Junior Women’s Prone Rifle Teams for World Championships will be announced at the end of the week.
In the Open division of Men’s Prone, Matt Chezem (Simi Valley, California) won top honors. Dan Lowe (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Olympia Washington) finished in second and 2012 Olympian Eric Uptagrafft (USAMU/Phenix City, Alabama) finished third. Lowe, a recent addition to the USAMU, also won a bronze medal earlier this week in Men’s Three-Position Rifle.
USAMU was once again represented on the podium today when Jim Henderson (Midland, Georgia) won the Men’s Air Pistol event. Henderson also earned his spot on the World Championship team in Air and Free Pistol at the Selection Match earlier this year.
The Men’s Air Pistol silver medal went to 2012 Olympian Nick Mowrer (Butte, Montana) and bronze to 2008 Olympian Brian Beaman (Selby, South Dakota). Beaman edged out Jay Shi (Phoenix, Arizona) for the bronze by a tie breaker that went back to the highest score in the last course of fire.
On the Women’s side, Courtney Anthony (Lexington, Nebraska) won this year’s National Champion title. 2012 Olympian Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Alabama) took silver and Teresa Chambers (Dearborn, Michigan) took bronze. Uptagrafft and Chambers also won their spots on the Women’s Air Pistol team for World Championships earlier this year.
Paralympic events were also contested with Shaun Tichenor (USAMU/Brainerd, Minnesota) winning today’s P1 (Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1) competition. Mike Tagliapietra (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) won the P3 (Mixed 25m Sport Pistol SH1) event earlier this week.
Competition continues tomorrow with the crowning of National Champions in Rapid Fire Pistol for the Open and Junior divisions, as well as the start of competition in Men’s Air Rifle and Women’s Three-Position Rifle.
Complete results from the National Championships can be found here: http://www.usashooting.org/library/Competitions/
2014_RP_Nationals/2014_Results_USASNC.xls.
