COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (June 14, 2017)
Dale Royer and Emily Hampson fought off tough competition to win Junior Olympic titles Tuesday at the 2017 National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) from the International Shooting Park just outside Colorado Springs.
Dale Royer
Double Trap’s loss just might turn out to be Trap’s gain. Royer (Jackson, Montana) is proving as much after the Double Trap specialist turned disappointment in the loss of his main event into opportunity with his sudden emergence as a trap contender. Double Trap has been eliminated from the Olympic program as announced by the International Olympic Committee earlier this week.Royer was the top qualifier, connecting on 116 of the 125 targets thrown. He’d shoot 22 of 25 to start the Final and then turn it on from there by connecting on 24 of his final 25 targets for a 46/50, which would tie the current International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Finals World Record set recently in the new Trap Finals format. Mick Wertz (Muncy, Pennsylvania) was a steady competitor throughout and his 44 hit targets in the Final would earn him a second-place finish and a spot on the National Junior Team. Logan Mountain (Palmdale, California) was third.
Fourth place overall finisher Brendan Bligh (College Station, Texas) would take the J2 age group (15 to 17 years of age) title. Cal Harris (Brentwood, California) finished second followed by Jacob Tucker (Booneville, Arkansas) in third. Sheldon Privetts (Kingman, Arizona) is the J3 (14 years and younger) Junior Olympic champion. Tristan Schroder (Battle Creek, Michigan) was second while Dylan Ziegler (Reno, Nevada) was third.
Emily Hampson
Hampson (Saint Charles, Missouri) makes a return to the top spot on the podium after also earning a NJOSC title in 2015. She entered Tuesday’s Final as the third-best qualifier with a 111/125 trailing National Team member Emma Williams (Savannah, Tennessee) by two targets and Valentina Pauri (Flower Mound, Texas) by one. Once in the Final, she would jump out to a two-target advantage over Williams after the first 25 clays and then would push that to three by the 30th target. But Williams wasn’t going anywhere and drew even with Hampson 40 targets in. Hampson would go on to win with just one missed target in the final 10 compared to Williams’ three misses. Joyce Hunsaker (Corpus Christi, Texas) missed five of her first 25 targets, but would miss just two more including 11 in a row to conclude her match as the bronze medalist. Pauri would earn a fourth-place finish.Hampson, the 2015 Junior World Cup gold medalist, stated that she was glad to be back on the podium after having to teach herself how to be successful as an event frontrunner and dealing with the pressures that come with success.
Junior Olympic champion for J2s is Faith Pendergrass (Valley Springs, California) with Caroline Johnson (Hot Springs, Arkansas) and Heather Broski (Spring Hill, Tennessee) joining her on the podium as silver and bronze medalists, respectively. Carey Garrison (Crossville, Tennessee) would get the J3 win with Ella McLerran (Moss, Tennessee) and Lexie Thompson (Garland, Utah) finishing second and third.
Men’s and Women’s Skeet competition takes place the next three days starting with official training on Wednesday.
NJOSC Trap Results
NJOSC Trap Photos