Shooting the Breeze

Charles City /Nashua trapshooters among top scorers at windy New Hampton Invitational

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

NEW HAMPTON — Hitting a knuckleball may be difficult. But how about shooting a knuckleball out of the air as it dips, rises and changes directions in mid-flight?

That was the task at hand for participants at the New Hampton Trapshooting Invitational, held Saturday at the Fredericksburg Sportsman’s Club.

The challenge of the coed high school event was enhanced by 30 to 35-mile-per-hour wind gusts out of the north, which made the clay pigeons dance in the air like quark particles.

“This is one of the toughest conditions to shoot in,” Charles City/Nashua assistant coach Nick Mead said. “The wind like today doesn’t make things easy.”

And it also didn’t make things warm and toasty.

“It even snowed earlier today,” CC/Nashua head coach Tim Laube said. “But it didn’t matter. We shoot in most all conditions. Rain, snow, wind … all except lightning.”

For the CC/Nashua team, as well as for most of the other participating teams, it was the first competition of the season. Despite the conditions, many of the CC/Nashua shooters hit more than they missed.

Charles City’s No. 1 squad placed second with a total score of 195. Defending Girls Singles state champion Izzy Worrall paced CC with a score of 40 out of 50 targets. Sydney North, Nick Wegner and Luke Hillegas each had 39 scores; and Aaron Wright shot a 38.

New Hampton Red, led by Christian Schwickerath’s 45, was the top squad with a 213 team total.

Brandon Brinks, shooting for another New Hampton squad, had the top boys individual score (46).

Osage’s Katelin Prochaska hit 43 targets to lead the girls. Worrall, Kennady Nie of New Hampton and Shelby Berhow of Osage were all tied with 40 scores, prompting a sudden-death shootout for second place. Berhow was the first to bow out, then two rounds later after Worrall missed, Nie hit the flying target to secure second place.

Charles City was able to field three squads, and Nashua one.

“We usually have four Charles City squads and one Nashua,” Laube said. “We were several kids short for this.”

Laube said squad lineups will change based on how well team members shoot at practice.

Among the other top shooters for CC/Nashua were Nick Bucknell (39), Rebecca Tierney (38), Bryce Hamm (34), Ciana Sonberg (33), Chaska Hunt (32), Ashton Lamborn (31) and Jacob Greenzweig (30).

CC/Nashua also had several individual shooters. Freshman Brody Jepperson was among them.

“I didn’t mind the conditions that much,” said Jeppperson, who started out hot hitting 8 of his first 10 targets, but then cooled down in the second round and ended up with a score of 27.

“This is my first year trapshooting and I like it,” Jepperson said. “I thought I shot okay. My best score (out of 50) is 31 in practice.”

New Hampton Invitational

April 2

At Fredericksburg Sportsman’s Club

Winning Squad

NEW HAMPTON RED (213)—Christian Schwickerath 45, Kevin Burgart 44, Austin Schmidt 43, Zach Hrying 41, Hunter Carey 40.

Runner-up Squad

CHARLES CITY NO. 1 (195) — Nick Wegner 39, Izzy Worrall 40, Luke Hillegas 39, Sydney North 39, Aaron Wright 38.

CHARLES CITY NO. 2 (162) — Rebecca Tierney 38, Bryce Hamm 34, Jacob Greenzweig 30, Dan Swartzrock 27, Ciana Sonberg 33.

CHARLES CITY NO. 3 (134) — Brendan Kvernevig 31, Kaleb Osier 28, Hunter Koebrick 26, Devin Alton 22, Evan Schmidtke 27.

NASHUA (154) — Chaska Hunt 32, Marrissa Fuerstenberg 25, Nick Bucknell 39, Ashton Lamborn 31, Tyler Lantz 27.

CHARLES CITY/NASHUA INDIVIDUALS — Regan Connell 20, Dylan Bilhartz 15, Dominique Griffin 22, Brody Jepperson 27.