Local Gopher teams take aim at clay target championship
Blooming Prairie trap shooters include, from left: Levi DenHerder, Alec Wangen, Alex Lea, Madi Lea and Carter Bishop. They are all smiles at the MSHSCT Championship in Alexandria last week. Bishop and Madi Lea were Blooming Prairie’s top male and female shooters with scores of 92 and 79, respectively. Photo courtesy of Kim Lea
All three Steele County Gopher Conference teams in Blooming Prairie, NRHEG and Medford competed at the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League (MSHSCT) Championships in Alexandria last week, with NRHEG emerging as the county’s highest-scoring squad.
NRHEG’s team total score of 464 was 33 points higher than Medford's at 431 while Blooming Prairie finished with a total of 422.
The Panthers’ leading sharpshooter on the day was Ashton Raimann with a smoking 96 out of 100 two-round total.
Leading the Panthers girls in total score was Eva Wayne with a two-round total of 85, tying her for seventh place.
NRHEG’s team score of 464 was the closest to qualifying for the state meet, but ultimately fell four points shy of surpassing Minnewaska Area High School’s final tally of 468.
Medford came into the tournament boasting Steele County’s smallest clay target squad with just five athletes; however, the Tigers made a splash as a team by shooting 431 for 500.
Dylan Heiderscheidt led the Tigers boys squad with a high score of 94 while Emily Kappes capped things off for Medford on the girls side by recording a 79.
Heiderscheidt entered the tournament after being selected by the MSHSCT to be a member of the 2022 Trap All-State Team with a season round average of 23.6.
Medford benefited from a strong group effort as all five members of the team shot 79 or better with Reid Wildgrube also reaching the 90-point mark with a 92.
Blooming Prairie’s Carter Bishop and Madi Lea were the Awesome Blossoms’ team leaders in Alexandria with Bishop recording a 92 and Lea recording a 79.
Lea rounded out the season in Alexandria after recently winning the Section 4A Conference Five trap shooting title back in May with a round average of 22.6.
None of the scores registered by Blooming Prairie, Medford or NRHEG qualified the schools for competition at the state tournament coming up on June 24 at the Minneapolis Gun Club in Prior Lake, thus officially ending the 2022 clay target season in Steele County.