Colby/Abby trap competes at state tourney
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Colby/Abbotsford trap team traveled to the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association Complex outside of Nekoosa for the state tournament held over the past weekend. Eight members of the team competed in the 1A event on Saturday, taking on over a thousand other shooters across the novice, junior varsity, and varsity levels. This season was the first year that the varsity team had enough members to be scored as a team at the tournament and the squad took 45th overall after their five varsity shooters put together a final combined score of 435.
Will Hennes put forth the best performance by an individual at the state tournament in the team’s history, tying for fourth place out of the 505 competitors in the varsity men’s competition. He shot an impressive 97 for 100 on the day, putting him just one bird behind the tournament winner, Riverdale’s Jordan Bomkamp, who ended the day with a score of 98.
Hennes very nearly found himself at the top of the leaderboard. After missing his second bird early in the second round, the Colby/Abby shooter connected on 71 straight attempts to put him in the running for the tournament’s top spot. A miss on the third to last attempt slid him down to a tie for fourth, but Hennes recomposed himself and hit the final two birds to finish the day on a high note.
Including the results from the 2A competition on Sunday, which has larger teams than the 1A division, Hennes would have finished tied for sixth overall out of the over 1,000 varsity male shooters.
“I couldn’t watch, I had to turn around and walk away,” coach Dan Hederer said while describing Hennes’ run at the end of the tournament. “Even when he missed his 23rd bird, normally you might get really frustrated, but he cleaned up the last two. Very proud coach. Sometimes, he’d miss a bird and get so frustrated, but he was tuned in. He didn’t let it bother him when he missed one and he was on a mission.”
Evan Reis and Tristen Smazal were in the middle of the pack on Saturday, both shooting 87 and tying for 234th. After missing a few birds in the opening rounds, with Smazal shooting a 21 and 20 in the first and second rounds and Reis shooting a 20 and 22, the pair put together a stronger second half. Smazal shot a pair of 23s and Reis had a third round score of 23 and a second round score of 22.
Brennan Geiger was not far behind, tying for 291st with a final score of 85. He was fairly consistent throughout the day, hitting 42 of 50 shots in the first half and 43 out of 50 birds in the second half. Jaxon Polivka rounded out the varsity squad’s results by tying for 422nd with a score of 79. After a tough first round, Polivka bounced back with a pair of 20 rounds before ending with his best performance of the day, shooting a 23 in the final.
Nolt Dommer tied for 55th overall in the junior varsity men’s competition that had 241 athletes, putting together a solid score of 82. He shot a 41 in each half and his 22 out of 25 in the first round was his best of the day. Jack Schindler also competed in the JV competition, tying for 163rd with a score of 71. The senior only got better as
See STATE TRAP TOURNEY/ Page 16
2024 STATE TOURNAMENT TEAM - The members of the Colby/Abby trap team pose for a team photo at the state tournament that eight members competed in this year. The varsity men’s team took 45th with a combined score of 435 while claiming second in the conference during the regular season.
SUBMITTED PHOTO State trap tourney
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the day went along, shooting an 18 and 20 in the third and fourth rounds for a total of 38 in the second half after combining for a 33 in the first half.
Sophie Kulsea took 32nd out of 46 shooters in the novice women’s competition, ending the day with a final score of 45. Her score of 15 in the second round was her best at the tournament and her average of 11.25 per round was just above her season average of 11.10.
The tournament was an excellent finish to a successful season for the now co-op squad. The team finished second overall in their six team conference, trailing only North Crawford High School in the standings. After a tough first week, where they had a score of 149.00, the team never scored below 210.00 over the final four head-to-head competitions. They finished with a final overall score of 1,044.50, 47.5 points behind North Crawford.
Smazal had the varsity squads best average over the course of the season, finishing fourth in the conference with an average score of 21.60. Geiger and Hennes were right behind their teammate in fifth and sixth with averages of 20.90 and 20.80 respectively and Polivka was fourth on the team by posting an average of 20.20, good for ninth in the conference. Reis was 13th in the conference with a 19.70 average, Noah Schraufnagel was 18th with an 18.70 average and Jack Schindler rounded out the top 25 finishers by tying for 19th with an average score of 18.60.
“The team did very well this year,” Hederer said. “We finished second in the conference in the regular season and the whole team shot above their average at state, even though they shot the first round in the rain. All in all, I’m very happy with how the whole team did.”
AIMING FOR THE TOP - Will Hennes, pictured above at the co-op trap team’s final practice, tied for fourth overall at the state tournament by connecting on 97 of his 100 shots on Saturday.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
LOCKED IN - Tristen Smazal, who finished with the trap team’s top average over the season, takes aim.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
