Official Bulletin for the 2015 BMRPA Junior Club Championship

Sponsored by: Bismarck-Mandan Rifle and Pistol Association

Fired on March 27, 2015

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2015 Club Championship. Our 2015 Club Champion is Lana Fairbanks. Lana fired a new club championship score of 395/400. This score surpasses Lana’s own club record of 393/400 that she set on March 22, 2014. In the Intermediate-Junior category, Jacob Langerud led the way with a 388-19x. Amanda Hintz fired a 386-14x for second place Intermediate-Junior. Karsten Klein was the first place Sub-Junior firing a 375-9x, Sarah Bruschwein was second with a 345-8x and Tyler Jose was the third Sub-Junior with a 289-4x. Lana also equaled the Junior Club Championship record of 97/100 in the Standing position, and she established a new Junior Club Championship record for the kneeling position of 99-8x.

The team match winners were Alyssa Schiwal and Preston Eagleson firing an excellent score of 325-11x. Just behind them in second place was Brady Fried and Peyton Eagleson with a 311-5x, and our third place team was Karsten and Talon Ames with a 308-8x. Congratulations to all the competitors that participated in our 2015 Club Championship event.

This season we had 2 juniors receive their Junior Smallbore Distinguished Award. Brady Fried fired his final qualifying scores at the December (2014) match in Grand Forks, and Karsten Klein fired his final qualifying score at the Open Sectional match in Grand Forks on March 21, 2015. Congratulations to these competitors. Brady and Karsten become the 26th and 27th Junior Distinguished Smallbore Riflemen in our club since our Junior program started back in 1993.

Congratulations to Brady Fried and Lana Fairbanks on qualifying for the Junior Olympic National Shooting Championships held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These competitors fired qualifying scores at the State Junior Olympic qualifying match in Minot in January. Brady will be heading to the Olympic Training Center in late April for this national competition. Lana will not be making the trip this year as she will be attending a program at the University of North Dakota. The Junior Olympic Shooting Championships brings out the very best young marksman in the United States. Junior Olympic qualifying scores have been going up over the years. It takes some hard effort and dedication in practice sessions and matches in order to get your skill level up to the level necessary to fire qualifying scores. It’s quite the honor to be invited to attend this event. Hold hard and shoot well Brady!

This completes the 23rd year of our Junior Marksmanship program and I think it was another great season. We had 10 juniors attend the Fall Advanced Marksmanship Program, and we had a lot of new shooters in the winter session. We had several of our advanced juniors attend a 3-day 3-position air rifle clinic this past October at our club here in Bismarck. Many of our junior competitors attended events in Bismarck, Minot, Devils Lake, Grand Forks and Ayr (North Dakota). It seems it’s always such a long season – but it’s over quick.

As stated, many of our juniors attended several events this season, but for some of you, our club championship was your first match. I hope everyone enjoyed the match and the program this year and I hope you had some success along the way. For shooters, this doesn’t mean you necessarily piled up medals or trophies – although that is fun to do. Success is really measured in your ability to achieve your goals. When I think of success and goals – I think of what Karsten what did at the Open Sectional and the State Match last weekend in Grand Forks. On the Sectional Match day – Karsten fired a personal best for 40 shots, fired a perfect score of 100 on a kneeling target (we shooters call that a clean), won the Marksmanship Class AND fired his final qualifying score for his Distinguished award. Now that was a fairly successful day – however, all Karsten could talk about was the perfect score he fired on the kneeling card – he had never done one of those before. Success is measured in many ways – you may not have had the best score on the bulletin sheet – but if you achieve your goals at a match – that is success. For some of you just getting up to the firing line and making it through your first match is success. I hope to see all of you on the firing line for many more matches.

Be sure to thank our coaches and others that helped with the program including Tina (my very significant other half), Dave and Mary Kay Tokach, Walt Fairbanks, Tom Headrick and Dave Bruschwein. I would also like to thank Tom and Melody Schiwal, Dave Hintz, Sandy Fried, Tim Klein, and all the other parents that helped out with preparing lunches for our events, scoring targets, data entry, posting scores, and setting up and taking down the range for practices and matches. It takes a lot of volunteer time and effort to put on this program and I appreciate everyone’s help.

I hope to see everyone back for the Advanced Junior Marksmanship program this fall. The advanced program is for juniors that intend to compete in 2015-16 shooting events including the State Junior Olympic Qualifier match usually held in Minot in January, 2016. The sign-up session will be sometime around 6:30 pm, Thursday, September 24, 2015. That’s it for this season and I hope to see everyone back next season. Until then, take care and good shooting!

Coach Thompson