On Saturday, June 24 FWRR hosted the third annual Indiana Junior High Power State Championship Match. The match was a great success with all of the Juniors, Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver’s Juniors as well as the others, rising to the occasion with great scores – no one had a bad day.
I have prepared an article for the ISRPA Newsletter that I am including in this post, but before we get into that article I want to highlight some of the accomplishments of the FWRR Juniors that need to be acknowledged:
Marshall Rohrbach: Marshall took second place in the State Match, second place to Madelyn Schnelle. Madelyn is a Distinguished Shooter and has been recognized nationally in many instances, so a lot of shooters finish behind her. BUT, Marshall shot a 480-18X for the match and won the Offhand Stage with a 96-2X and the Simulated 600-yard stage with a 197-12X. Marshall’s 480-18X was a solid Master score and was a personal best.
Mia King: Mia also shot a personal best with her 96-1X Offhand score. That put her one X-count behind Marshall, the State Offhand Champion and three points ahead of the State Junior Champion. Her 460-5X, a personal best for a match, was a solid Expert score.
Kileen Shaffer: Kileen started off with scope issues and was only able to salvage an 80 in her Offhand stage, but she hung in there like the competitor she is and came back with 95, 96 and 189 scores in the last three stages, finishing with a match score of 460-5X. Her 92% score put her in the Expert Class and is probably close to her personal best for a match.
Addiysn Shull: Addiysn is classified as an NRA Marksman, but she has been putting up some good scores in practice lately. She kept that up on Saturday, firing a 452-2X aggregate that put her into the Expert Class – another shooter who peaked with a personal best at the State Match
Tayt Shaffer: Tayt is our newest shooter, just turning 12-years old on May 24. This was his first 50-round across-the-course match and he turned in a 349-2X score for the day. It was a great effort and a lot of the other competitors and adults gave him “Atta-boys” for hanging in there on a long match.
All of our “old” shooters shot Expert or higher scores. All of then turned in a personal best at some time during the match. These Juniors are beginning to be force to be reckoned with. When you see them – let them know how proud you are of their accomplishments!
Here is the ISRPA Newsletter article:
Madelyn Schnelle Posts Three-Pete for 2023 Indiana Junior High Power Championship
The question on just about everyone’s mind on Saturday, June 24 at the third Indiana Junior High Power State Championship Match was; “Can Madelyn Schnelle pull off a Three-Pete and take the State title back to Wildcat Valley three years in a row?” Eight other Junior shooters from all over Indiana had gathered at the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club Range to do their best to keep her from doing just that.
It was a good day for a high power match; cloudy but not dark and absolutely no wind – the flags drooped listlessly most of the day. A little spritz of rain fell as the shooters made their way to the line but it stopped quickly and Madelyn fired a ceremonial First Shot to open the match (and to verify a repair to one of the Silver Mountain targets).
At the end of the Offhand stage, it appeared that an upset might be in the making. FWRR’s Marshall Rohrbach, the Offhand winner for the previous two years, shot a blistering 96-2X followed by FWRR Mia King with a 96-1X, Wildcat’s Alex Becker with a 94-1X and Madelyn with a 93-1X. The reigning champion went into Sitting Rapid in fourth place.
The match got serious in Sitting Rapid with Madelyn coming back with a 100-4X clean and Marshall following up with a 97-2X score. As the group moved back to 300-yards to finish up, the score was Madelyn 193-5X and Marshall 193-4X; Madelyn was only ahead by a single X-count.
At the 300-yard rapid prone stage Madelyn and Wildcat’s Logan Becker shot identical 99-4X scores. Marshall got into an NPA problem and fired a ragged group but salvaged a 90-2X from the string. Madelyn went into the final stage, Prone Slow fire with a 292-9X to 283-6X 9-point advantage over Marshall.
There is an old saying that it isn’t over until the fat lady sings, but Marshall hung in there. He opened up his Slow Prone with five 10-X shots, a 9-10-9 series and then eight more 10-X, finishing with a 9 then three 10-X shots for a total of 197-12X. Logan Becker jumped back into the fray with a 197-6X and Madelyn finished off with a 194-10X. Marshall made up three points on Slow Prone with a 197-12X, but the 9-point advantage Madelyn had coming into the stage was just too much to overcome.
Madelyn Schnelle had pulled off the Three-Pete with a 486-19X score, but there was serious competition for her top spot all the way. Congratulations to Madelyn for hanging onto the Indiana State Junior Championship against some serious competition.
The top scores for the match were:
Madelyn Schnelle Wildcat Valley 486 -19X High Master
Marshall Rohrbach FWRR 480 -18X Master
Logan Becker Wildcat Valley 476 -12X Master
Alex Becker Wildcat Valley 473 – 7X Master
Awards were:
State Champion Madelyn Schnelle 486 – 19X
1st Master Madelyn Schnelle 486 – 19X
1st Expert Emma Branson 465 – 7X
1st Sharpshooter Marshall Rohrbach 480 – 18X
1st Marksman Addisyn Shull 452 – 1X
High Offhand Marshall Rohrbach 96 – 2X
High Sitting Rapid Madelyn Schnelle 100 – 4X
High Prone Rapid Madelyn Schnelle 99 – 4X
Logan Becker 99 – 4X
High Prone Slow Marshall Rohrbach 197 – 12X
Logan Becker 197 – 6X
And, a special call-out to Tayt Shaffer; Tayt is our Sub-Sub-Junior shooter, turning 12-years old on May 24 of this year. This was his first State Match and he closed out with a 349-2X score!
Thanks to the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club for hosting the match, thanks to all of the sponsors who contributed funds or goodies for the match and thanks to all of the people who pitched in to make the match possible.