Season concludes with some high scores at state, GNC Shootout

MEDFORD AREA TRAP CLUB

The Medford Raiders Trap Club completed its 2022 season with 14 shooters taking part in the 2022 Wisconsin Scholastic Clay Target Program State Championships, held on the weekend of June 24-25 at the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association Homegrounds near Nekoosa.

Almost 1,900 high- and middle-school shooters from around the state took part, including 1,572 boys and 326 girls.

Medford’s varsity team placed 55th out of 60 teams that had a full complement of five shooters with a team score of 402 clay targets being hit out of a possible 500. The Raiders finished ahead of Great Northern Conference rival Tomahawk, who was 60th at 382. Lakeland, with four shooters, earned a score of 366 to place 62nd overall.

Connor Gowey led the five varsity entrants with a score of 94 that ranked 101st out of 667 varsity boys. Hailey Fisher hit a personal-best 84 targets to rank second on the team and 56th out of 143 varsity girls. Matthew Jiskra’s 83 placed 425th, Mason Meyer’s 80 placed 487th and Braxton Weissmiller’s 61 placed 649th among varsity boys.

Fisher was 93rd among all 326 females who competed.

Waterford won the team championship with a score of 490, winning a tiebreaker over Berlin. Jefferson (487) was third, followed by Milwaukee Lutheran (486) and Beaver Dam (486).

Medford’s top individual score was posted by Cole Pernsteiner, who hit 96 out of 100 targets while competing in the Intermediate/Advanced class (grades 7-8). He was fifth out of 231 boys in the class behind Dane Richter of Burlington (100), Kyle Galston of Horicon (100), Brady Fincutter of Jefferson (98) and Chase Wiegand of Sturgeon Bay (97). Pernseiner was 67th out of all 1,572 boys that competed.

Also in the class, Medford’s Wyatt Doriot shot an 89 to place 52nd and Shane Kiselicka shot a 67 to place 202nd. In junior varsity competition, Zach Ernest had a score of 73 to rank 271st out of 347 boys and Emily Kiselicka hit 67 targets to rank 65th out of 84 girls.

First-year shooters competing in the Intermediate/Entry Level class, Ashton Behling (82), Forest Hartl (77) and Jake Erl (76) ranked 49th, 76th and 87th out of 252 boys. Fifth grader Kason Myszka shot a 69 to place 33rd out of 75 male entrants in the Rookie division.

With just four available shooters, Medford finished ninth in the varsity standings of the Great Northern Conference Shootout hosted by the Mosinee Sportsmens Alliance on June 2 with a score of 278. Mosinee won the shootout with a score of 454, followed by Antigo (440), Merrill (440), Stevens Point (432), Rhinelander (424), Tomahawk (410), Wausau Skeet and Trap (346), Lakeland (280) and Medford.

When considering entrants at all levels, Medford’s team score was 414, good for eighth place out of 10 teams ahead of Lakeland (280) and Northland Pines (210). Mosinee (471), Stevens Point (459), Rhinelander (454), Merrill (452), Antigo (447), Tomahawk (438) and Wausau Skeet and Trap (425) were first through seventh.

Gowey hit 92 of 100 targets to lead the varsity, Jiskra hit 76, Fisher had 56 and Weissmiller hit 54. Gowey ranked ninth out of 92 varsity entrants and 12th out of all 200 boys listed in the results. In his four rounds of 25 targets, he hit 22, 24, 23 and 23.

Pernsteiner was 33rd among all boys by hitting 89 total targets with rounds of 20, 25, 21 and 23. He was ninth out of 45 shooters in the Intermediate/Advanced level. Doriot was 18th with a score of 84 and Shane Kiselicka was 39th at 64.

At the Junior Varsity level, Ernest was 40th out of 50 shooters at 63 and Emily Kiselicka was 48th with a score of 54. In Intermediate/Entry Level competition, Behling was 24th out of 63 entrants with a score of 71, Hartl was 27th at 69 and Erl was 38th at 66.

Myszka was the first-place rookie, outshooting eight other competitors with his score of 73. He was one hit ahead of Mosinee’s Brock Mullins.