MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2017   ■   COMPETITIONS

SCTP Reports on its 2017 National College Championships

Marengo, OH - The SCTP College Nationals were held October 27-29, 2017 at the "Spooky" Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, OH. The facility, decked out with ghouls, goblins and witches, was once again the host for this 3rd annual College event!

231 athletes of representing 25 teams from 15 states made up over 700 registrations at this year's College Nationals! Throwing over 125,000 clay targets in Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays, Bunker Trap and 5-Stand kept the Cardinal Center staff quite busy for a few days.

This year's tournament experienced some very "terrifying" weather thanks to Mother Nature! Rain and snow coupled with temperatures dipping into the low 30's made for some very interesting rounds!

Division 1 teams comprised of this year's (HOA) champions, Lindenwood University of Missouri! Runner up, Midland University of Nebraska gave them a tough battle as did 3rd place Bethel College from Tennessee. Division II teams included this year's champion's Martin Methodist of Tennessee (who had the overall HOA high score for the 2nd straight year), runner-up Ft. Hayes State University of Kansas followed by Hillsdale College of Michigan. Division III schools were represented by this year's National Champions Emanuel College of Georgia, Runner-ups University of Alabama Clay Shooting Team and 3rd place team, Eastern Kentucky University. This year, the SCTP added Division IV. This newly added division will consist of 2 Year Colleges of which was won by Roane State Community College of Tennessee with Runner-up, Hawkeye Community College of Iowa!

Individuals turning in stellar performances included Ladies HOA winner, Paige Denny of the Midland University Shotgun Team and Men's HOA winner, Riley Ross representing Ft. Hayes State. These athletes won Shamrock Leather Shooting bags compliments of the SCTP and Shamrock! Other notables were a perfect performance shot in the Skeet event (200 Straight) by Eli Christman – Martin Methodist College!

Braving the snow and frigid temperatures all day at the 2017 SCTP College Nationals on Saturday, athletes found some energy to compete in a "Spooktacular" Last Competitor Standing competition along with a costume judging contest (by their peers)!

For the costume contest, coming in 1st place and dressed as a Panda Bear was Darrien Lettman. 2nd place went to Noah Adair dressed as a clown and 3rd place went to a chicken worn by Mark Beardsley! These athletes were awarded shamrock leather products and ammunition provided by Fiocchi. Congratulations and great job by all of our costume wearing athletes!!

Competing in the Last Competitor Standing competition and toughing out the below average temperatures of a late October evening were the following athletes: Dressed as a "T-Rex" and fighting off all competition was the champion and "Last Competitor Standing", Christian Salvanera! The Runner up award was won by Andy Carey with 3rd place going to Ty McCaskey, 4th awarded to Marcus Draves and 5th going to Nathan Hembree!

Great job to all of the competitors and we sure hope you all had a wonderful time!

"Great facility, great teams/coaches/athletes/parents and cold weather! The SCTP Team worked very hard and thoroughly enjoyed working with these great teams. We are extremely excited and looking forward to next year's tournament!" commented Tom Wondrash, SCTP National Director. "We received the final score sheet at about 2:00pm on Sunday, started handing out awards at 2:15 and were finished (waving good-bye) to the teams and athletes by 3:00pm! It just doesn't get any better than that for these teams!"

For a full list of results and finishes in all disciplines, please see our website a www.sssfonline.org and click on "results".

The SCTP would like to Thank the Cardinal Shooting Center for their hard work, Jeff McClure from the MidwayUSA Foundation and all the parents and teams for attending and supporting our great program!

See complete results from the 2017 Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) College Nationals from the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, OH on the SSSF's SHOT system. Click on "leaderboards", select the event you wish to see results for then select the leaderboard you would like to see. See the results here!

Parties interested in starting Clay Target Shooting teams with the SCTP, College or High School, can contact any one of the SCTP Staff for assistance.

About Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation

The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is 501(c)(3) public charity responsible for all aspects of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) and Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) across the United States. SCTP and SASP are youth development programs in which adult coaches and other volunteers use shooting sports to teach and to demonstrate sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, ethics, integrity, teamwork, and other positive life skills. SCTP was developed as a program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) until the SSSF was created in 2007 to operate the SCTP. In 2012, SSSF created the SASP and became the managing foundation of both programs.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) is a youth development program featuring the sports of Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays, as well as the Olympic disciplines of Bunker Trap, Trap Doubles and International Skeet.

For more information about SSSF and SCTP, visi www.sssfonline.org