Hornets trap takes aim at state
The Colby trap team made the trip to Rome this past Saturday for the 2023 state tournament. The WTA Shooting Complex, which was where the tournament was held, played host to over 800 participants on Saturday and nearly 2,000 over the two day event. Eight members of Colby’s team competed, setting or tying six personal best rounds and putting forth a solid overall performance.
The competition consists of two sessions of two rounds, with each round consisting of the standard 25 targets, equalling a grand total of 100 targets for the day.
Two of Colby’s shooters, Braxton Meyer and Brennan Geiger, took part in the varsity competition. Both tied their personal bests in the final round of the day, hitting 24 out of 25 targets. Meyer had the team’s best second session of the day, recording a score of 46. He finished the day with a final score of 90, earning himself 157th place out of the 410 varsity participants. Geiger, meanwhile, was consistent in his results, shooting a 44 in both the first and second sessions, giving him a total of 88 and earning him 206th place.
Five Hornets competed in the JV portion of the event. Jacob Hoppe led the way for the JV team, jumping out to a hot start by only missing two targets in the first session and matching his personal best of 24 in both of his first two rounds. Bolstered by this solid opening, Hoppe ended with a final score of 92, taking sixth overall in the men’s JV section, which had 231 participants.
Tristen Smazal also had a solid first session of the day, shooting a 45 over the opening two rounds, which was second best on the team. He ended with a final score of 86 and took 42nd.
Fellow JV teammates Tyler Timmers and Will Hennes finished with scores of 80 and 77 respectively. Timmers, competing in his last event for the Hornets, set a personal best in the final round of the day, shooting a 23 and taking 94th overall. Hennes placed 130th.
Alana Brill took part in the women’s JV division and took 43rd out of 61 participants. She shot a 72 overall and set a new personal best in the second round, recording a 21 in her final competition for the high school team. Nolt Dommer also set a new personal best of 21 while competing in the novice competition on Saturday. He ended the day with a score of 63, putting up the new personal best in the third round. Dommer finished 43rd out of 81 in the novice category.
The plethora of new personal bests in the state competition are indicative of the improvement the team saw throughout the season.
The tournament was the final competition of the season for the Hornets, who will now be looking ahead to the 2024 season. Brill and Timmers have graduated, but Colby will have the opportunity to return the rest of their roster next year.
