As the Indiana Junior State Championship match opened, the question was; “Will Madelyn repeat as State Champion for a fourth time, or will someone upset her?” Competition is intense for the top spot. Madelyn has been working and hasn’t shot for a month. Emma is shooting Master scores and Marshall is always there at the top; Logan is consistently a strong contender. Will this be the year when the Madelyn’s winning series is broken?
Nope – not this year!
Saturday, June 8 was a beautiful day for a State Championship – nine Junior shooters from across Indiana gathered at the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club for the Fourth Annual State Championship. The day had comfortable temperatures, beautiful light and although there was a pretty good breeze at times – it was not a factor in most of the match.
Once the match got underway, it was apparent that Madelyn was the champion to beat. One of the sayings of high power shooters is that you can’t win a match in the Offhand stage, you can lose it there – but Madelyn dominated Offhand with a 193-5X, 10 points ahead of Logan Becker. In Sitting Rapid, Logan gained one point against Madelyn, but as the match moved back to 300-yards – Logan trailed by 9 points.
In the Prone Rapid fire string, Logan and Madelyn went head to head with both posting 198 scores; Logan with a 198-8X to Madelyn’s 198-4X. But at the Slow Prone stage, Madelyn took command again posting a 200-14X clean score for a match aggregate of 790-33X; dropping only 10 points across the whole match.
Awards:
Madelyn Schnelle State Champion; Gold Medal 790 – 33X
Logan Becker Silver Medal 776 – 20X
Emma Branson Bronze Medal 764 – 11X
First High Master Madelyn Schnelle 790 – 33X
First Expert Emma Branson 764 – 11X
First Sharpshooter Mia King 752 – 7X
First Marksman Tayt Shaffer 613 – 5X
First Offhand Madelyn Schnelle 193 – 5X
First Sitting Rapid Madelyn Schnelle 199 – 10X
First Prone Rapid Logan Becker 198 – 8X
First Slow Prone Madelyn Schnelle 200 – 14X
Incidentally, there was an “Old Guy” match being shot along with the Junior State Championship. Mike King, a consistent ISRPA State Champion contender, was shooting on the same firing point as Madelyn and as the day went on, they were head to head for high match aggregate. The contest went down to the last shot in the Slow Prone Stage. Madelyn had finished with 790-33X, but Mike was at 780-34X. If Mike shot another 10, he would have bragging rights for the day– but he missed a slight wind shift and his last shot was a 9!
WIN, MADELYN!
In the afternoon, there was a Garand Match where many of the Juniors shot the Classic rifles. It was a great close to a great day of shooting.
