COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (July 15, 2019)
Jr World Cup Champion Faith Pendergrass
All it took Monday at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup was a little bit of Faith. Faith Pendergrass that is after the 18-year-old California native earned the gold medal in the Women’s Trap event in Suhl, Germany.
Pendergrass (Valley Springs, California) and her teammates put the exclamation point on a great couple weeks for U.S. Women’s Trap during a European stint that also included World Championships in Italy. Along with individual gold, Pendergrass helped lead the U.S. Women’s Junior Trap team that also included Junior World Championship finalists Carey Garrison (Crossville, Tennessee) and Nicole Manhave (Longview, Texas) to a silver-medal team finish. Today’s medal bonanza comes on top of two women’s team (Open + Junior) titles at Worlds along with individual gold for Ashley Carroll as well in Italy.
Pendergrass was 16th at Worlds after a 103/125 but was seven shots better this time around to earn her the third-best Qualification score. In the Final, she’d be facing off against Junior World Champion Selin Ali of Romania and fourth-place finisher Gaia Ragazzini of Italy. Pendergrass began the Finals match with six misses over her first 25 targets. After a miss on target 37, Pendergrass would focus in and miss just two additional targets over her final 13 chances. Ali was in the running to challenge Pendergrass as the two battled for Suhl supremacy, but the Romanian World Champ missed five of her last six shots to ensure a four-target victory for Faith.
Nicole Manhave (left), Carey Garrison (middle) and Faith Pendergrass, 2019 Jr. World Cup Silver Medalist in Women's Trap
Pendergrass, Garrison and Manhave would earn a second-place team finish with Garrison finishing ninth after a score of 107 while Manhave was 20th with a 105. They were nine targets behind the winning Chinese team that featured Ting Zhang, the event’s top qualifier with 115 targets. Zhang finished sixth overall after missing nine of her 25 targets in the Final.
Pendergrass will enroll at Martin Methodist College in Tennessee later this summer.
In Men’s Trap, another Martin Methodist College incoming freshman, Steven Brown (Anchorage, Alaska), was the USA’s top finisher like he was at Worlds. His score of 117 in Italy was good enough for eighth and this time that same score would earn him an 11th-place finish, two shots out of a possible Finals berth. Junior National Champion Roe Reynolds (Quitman, Arkansas) finished 30th with a 114 while another Martin Methodist College athlete, Grayson Davey (Anchorage, Alaska), was 48th with a 110. They’d finish in eighth place as a team.
Other featured action at the Junior World Cup on Monday included action in Women’s Air Rifle and Day 1 competition in Sport Pistol. Top finisher in Women’s Air Rifle, featuring 124 competitors, was reigning NCAA National Champion from Texas Christian University, Kristen Hemphill (Lohn, Texas), as she shot a score of 625.7 to finish 15th. Nebraska-bound Junior Olympic champion Macey Way (Colorado Springs, Colorado) was 24th with a 624.1. Sixteen-year-old Katie Zaun (Buffalo, North Dakota) was 38th with a score of 621.2. They’d finish in sixth place as a team.
Paul Kang (Los Angeles, California) is the highest ranking U.S. men’s competitor after the precision stage of sport pistol in 44th place. Ryan Yi (Diamond Bar, California) is 55th and Luke Simon (Colorado Springs, Colorado) is 59th. On the women’s side, Ada Khorkin (Brookline, Massachusetts) is 30th followed by Abbie Leverett (Bainbridge, Georgia) in 50th.
Trap Mixed Team and Men’s Air Rifle takes place Tuesday as well as the rapid stage in Sport Pistol and the start of Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol.
RESULTS: http://bit.ly/2JONe4e