Cyclones take home trophies at state trap shooting meet

The Harlan Trap Shooting team took home five trophies with several kids bringing home medals at the state meet in Cedar Falls.

“We are very proud of our whole team this year, almost everyone who went to state had at least one personal best for the year which is awesome to see,” said Cyclones Head Trap Shooting Coach Jason Paulsen.

Paulsen spoke on how many new kids joined the program this year, particularly kids in elementary school, who have been progressing throughout the season.

“This year we have 23 new faces on the team mostly consisting of 5th and 6th graders and their enthusiasm has been very high all year,” he said. “Also, this year the bar has been moved up for all of our shooters in all divisions and that makes them better shooters overall.”

Some individual kids who stood out with winning medals were Trigger Richards and Brynn Schumacher.

Richards won 3rd place in the league for rookie boy singles, 1st in the league for rookie handicaps and doubles. At the state meet he won 6th place out of 107 rookie boy shooters, he shot 85/100 and placed 3rd in the handicaps division and 1st for doubles in the rookie division.

Brynn Schumacher won 1st in the league for handicaps, 1st in the league for doubles. She won 2nd place in the league for rookie girls singles division and won 1st place at the state meet in both the handicap and doubles division for the rookie girls.

“Trigger and Brynn really did well this year because both of them naturally were able to pick up the sport fairly quickly, and we have a lot of kids in that age group that make big jumps as we moved through the season,” Paulsen said. “I think we will be seeing a lot of the kids in that age group getting medals in the next few years as they grow and refine the skills that they have learned. I think there is a lot of competitive drive in that group and they should be fun to watch as they continue in the sport.”

Paulsen credited the kids for working hard throughout the season and being willing to trying something new in the sport.

“I think the reason we did so good at other disciplines is because the kids all were open to trying them early in the year and practice them at most practices,” he added.

According to Paulsen, with the older kids on the roster, they have more experience, so they don’t have to practice near as much, but some of the younger kids were brand new to the sport.

“The younger kids have come along way since the beginning of the season, with some of them having never held a gun until they started with our team,” Paulsen added. “The older kids are getting better by practicing each week to make small adjustments to boost the scores they get each week.”

Paulsen believes the future of trap shooting at HCHS is bright and anticipates growth in the coming years.

“Every year is record entries at state and our team I think will grow again next year with only graduating three seniors and lots of interest in joining the team already,” he said. “There are not many sports that a 5th grader can compete with an adult and win against them. I hope the kids take away a lot more than just breaking targets when they are at the range, and overall become better people in the long run because of it.”