Blue Devil Rifle Team Competes at JROTC All Service Nationals
Over 220 of the top high school Junior ROTC cadet marksmen in the US met at the Gary Anderson Marksmanship Center in Camp Perry Ohio to compete in the 19th annual All Service JROTC National Air Rifle Championship. This contest marked the final stop on a journey that began in October when nearly 6400 junior rifle marksmen from Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps JROTC programs began competing in local rifle matches, vying for a berth in their respective service championships in February.
Walla Walla High School entered the competition as one of 1100 Army JROTC high schools with rifle marksmanship programs invited to compete. From local qualifications, 800 of the top competitors received invitations to regional service matches. The Army JROTC Western Regional Championships, held in Salt Lake City in February winnowed the field down to 5 teams in each service, leaving the top 3% of the original field still standing. Ranked number 2 in the west and number 5 in the nation, the Blue Devils’ precision rifle team, consisting of 4 cadets embarked on the last stage of this competition on March 24th and 25th. Led by rifle team captain Cadet Major Benjamin Nelson, the scoring team included Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Kaden Kerr, Cadet Captain Raquelle Justice and Cadet Captain Tristan Scott.
The match, taking place over two days, consisted each day of 20 record shots from each of 3 positions; prone, standing and kneeling. Each series is timed, allowing 5-8 minutes for adjusting sights in each position and 5 minutes between each position to reconfigure rifles and firing points. Athletes are given 20 minutes to fire 20 prone shots for record, 25 minutes to fire 20 offhand (standing) shots and 20 minutes to fire 20 shots from the kneeling. All told, each day’s contest takes approximately 2 hours from set up to finish. Each shot is scored at a maximum of 10 points on a target approximately the size of a .50 cent piece with a “10-ring” that is roughly the size of a period in a sentence. The maximum possible score for individual shooters each day is 600.
On the first day of competition the Blue Devils produced a score only 6 points off their season-high mark with a total of 2289 out of 2400 points. Team members Justice and Scott ended the day in a virtual tie at 575 with Kerr just one point back at 754 and Nelson producing a 565. The team’s performance had them sitting in 13th place at the end of competition the first day.
“Our prone scores were the highest of all the Army teams here.” Commented Nelson on Friday following the match “We struggled some in standing, but made up a lot of ground with several good kneeling scores on the team.”
On the second day of competition, Justice led the team in score with a career-high total of 579, followed by Scott at 571. WAHI’s performance the second day was lower, only totaling 2258 points and dropping them 2 places to 15th as the match concluded.
“I was doing my best to ignore the pressure and try to have fun.” Said Justice of her performance. “I just kept shaking off the shots I didn’t like and trying to focus on the next one.”
“This was our first time at this match since 2019” said rifle team coach Mark Mebes “COVID restrictions canceled it for two years, and we didn’t qualify last season. It was great to be back here. I’m very proud of the team’s performance this year.”
The Blue Devils returned to Walla Walla for a week of training before leaving for Utah to compete in the CMP Western Regional Championship, the third stop for them in their non-JROTC marksmanship season. The team traveled minus Justice, who had accepted an invitation to compete at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado over the same weekend.
