COLUMBUS, Ohio – Following a shoot-off with the Central Falcons of Wisconsin, the Lake Oconee Shotgun Team from Georgia claimed the Varsity Division title during the week-long competition at the 2016 Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) National Team Championships in Ohio. The win is Lake Oconee's third following the team's Intermediate/Entry Level and Junior Varsity Division title wins in Doubles Skeet.

The Lake Oconee Shotgun Team, led by Jasper Copelan of Eatonton with 199, finished regulation breaking 588 of their 600 targets. Brandon Samples of Good Hope added 196 while Mitch Marsh of Hillsboro delivered another 193 towards the team's winning title run.

Held July 9-16 at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio, nearly 2,200 athletes representing 28 states faced more than 961,000 clay targets during eight days of competition in the shooting disciplines of Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays.

In their second place finish, the Central Falcons were led by Benjamin Schroeder of Cherry Valley, Ill. with 197, followed by John Dietz of Kenosha, Wisc. with 196 and Hunter Conrad of Bristol, Wisc. with 195. The squad finished regulation tied with Lake Oconee with 588 total targets.

Third place went to Tennessee's Henry Co. No Fly Zone with 587. The No Fly Zone shooters were led by Scott Hicks of Camden with 197, followed by Briar Ray of Puryear with 196 and Hunter Fletcher of Paris with 194.

Rounding out the top five were two squads from the Haywood Young Guns of Tennessee. Fourth went to the Haywood squad of Grayson Robinson of Brownsville (198), Jacob Williams of Bells (194) and Tritt Ellington of Brownsville (192) who combined for 584 targets.

Haywood's fifth place team of Blake Robinson of Huron (195), Zachary Tinsley of Bells (193) and Jonathan Vandiver of Jackson (193) broke a total of 581 targets.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) is a youth development program in which adult coaches and other volunteers use the shooting sports of Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays, as well as the Olympic disciplines of Bunker Trap, Trap Doubles and International Skeet to teach and to demonstrate sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, ethics, integrity, teamwork, and other positive life skills. Nationally, there are nearly 13,700 students and more than 2,900 coaches from 43 states participating in the Scholastic Clay Target Program.

The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. (SSSF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the National Governing Body for the Scholastic Clay Target Program. SCTP was started by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in 2001.

For more information about SCTP and SSSF, visi www.sssfonline.org. You can also follow SCTP on Facebook a www.facebook.com/ShootSCTP or https://www.instagram.com/scholasticshootingsports/>@ScholasticShootingSports on Instagram.