WaHi JROTC Rifle Team Ranked #5 in the country
Army JROTC Nationals Competition
Walla Walla High School’s JROTC Rifle Teams traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah in February, for the Army JROTC Western Regional Rifle Championship. Over 120 of the top qualifying high school ROTC marksmen from 13 western states of the US met for the two-day match. The Utah match is the third of three matches that pitted the top Army JROTC shooters against each other vying for honors and an invitation to the All-Service JROTC National Championship in March. Over 400 high school JROTC programs compete in local qualifying matches to gain an invitation to the event.
The team, captained this year by Cadet Captain Benjamin Nelson received invitations for both the precision class and sporter class rifle teams. Sporter Team members are Cadet Lieutenant Aviella Wilson, Cadet First Sergeant Chanze Martz, Cadet Master Sergeant Clayton Johnson, Cadet Sergeant Saphira Rynaski, and Cadet Corporal Isabel Dalan. Serving on the Precision Team are Nelson, Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Kaden Kerr, Cadet Captain Raquelle Justice, Cadet Captain Tristan Scott, and Cadet Corporal Major Maximus Malone. The match consisted of 2 days of Olympic-Style air rifle shooting with competitors shooting 20 record shots in each of three firing positions; prone, standing, and kneeling. Each shot is worth a total of 10 points, with each shooting a daily score out of a possible 600 each day. The Blue Devil sporter team produced a team total of 2036 on the first day of the competition, led by Johnson, a senior, who turned in a 518, followed by Dalan at 515 and Wilson at 512. Their team score put them in 6th place out of the 13 teams present. The Precision team finished the first day with a team total of 2294, a season-high for the Blue Devils, putting them in 2nd place behind the team from Fort Carson, Colorado. Kerr held WaHi’s top score of the day with a 582, a career-high for him which included a perfect 200 in the prone and a 195 from the kneeling position.
“We just finished a shooting clinic hosted by Olympic marksman Dan Lowe a couple of weeks ago.” Said Kerr on Friday “We did a lot of work concerning trigger squeeze and I think that really paid off today.” At the end of the first day, Kerr held the number four spot in the precision class with teammate Justice just 5 points behind in 6th place with a 577 and Scott in the 8th place position with a 573. On the second day of competition, the sporter team turned their second-highest score of the season at 2056, bettering their placement to 5th overall, led this time by Martz who shot a 520, followed closely by Wilson at 517 and Johnson at 516. In the precision class, the Blue Devils turned a slightly lower score on the second day of the match, cementing them in second place behind Fort Carson with a total of 2278 for the day and a 4572 for the match. The team was led this time by Justice with a 576, followed closely by Kerr at 574 and Scott with a 572. Kerr’s two-day total put him in 4th place and Justice in 6th overall going into the final match. The championship concluded with a final match on Saturday afternoon. In the final, the 8 shooters with the highest 2-day totals trade blows for 10 shots from the standing position to determine final placement and medals.
During the final, Kerr dropped 2 places to the 6th position just behind Justice, who moved forward one place to claim 5th. At the matches’ conclusion, WaHi’s Precision Team took 2nd place in the western region and 5th place nationally. This placement will earn the Blue Devils an invitation for 4 shooters to attend the All Service JROTC National Championship in Camp Perry, Ohio in March.
