July 12 was one of those matches where I expected there to be a light turnout. There were not that many call ahead registrations, there was an XTC match at Atterbury and it was going to be a hot and humid day – all of which can lead to light attendance.
Then shooters started showing up. People came in from Lima, then Toledo, then Cloverdale and Stryker Ohio. Next thing I knew – a bus from Concordia High School drove up with five Junior shooters and a couple of other shooters! By the time we went to the line, I had three full relays and one set of shooters pair firing for a total of 25 shooters for the match – one of the best turn-outs we’ve had in a long time. (I would have had to be inventive if three of our regulars at FWRR hadn’t decided to go to Atterbury to shoot over the weekend – we would have had several pair firing positions!)
It was a full firing line on all three relays
It was a warm day, but most of the time there was a breeze from 12-o’clock to make it bearable. The precaution to everyone was “drink water – keep hydrated” and we had nobody with any issues from the heat other than sweaty shooting coats.
Mia takes her sighters offhand while Kileen checks her zero from a sitting position
Marshall Rohrbach was the 800 Aggregate match winner for the day with a 778-22X. Notably, this was Marshall’s first match NOT as a Junior – Marshall having turned 21 just a couple of weeks ago. “Welcome to the Big Time Marshall”. Second place in the 80-round group was Jim Otto with 772-23X and third was Jeff Beierke with 751-18X. First Junior was Mia King with 726-9X.
In the 50-round group, Jim Jackson took first with 487-14X, followed by Jess Jessup’s 470-15X. Third was Kelly Bushong with a 450-3X. First Junior in the 50-round match was Concordia’s Caleb Dekker.
We want to acknowledge the High Power Team from Concordia who shot their debut match at FWRR. In the Concordia group, congratulations to Sydney Beiswanger with a 712-10X in the 80-round match and Caleb Dekker in the 50-round match with a 449-5X.
FWRR Juniors score for the Concordia Juniors
Ashley, Ashton and Tayt – Offhand
Next on the agenda are the National Matches at Camp Perry. We have a number of individual shooters participating as well as eight of our Juniors – it will be an exciting week or 10-days.