The Hillsdale College Shotgun Team recently returned from a successful trip to St. Louis, MO to compete in the Lindenwood Spring Open from February 24-26. Including Hillsdale, there were 14 schools in attendance, the others being Culver, Drury, Grand Valley, Hannibal-LaGrange, Iowa Central Community College, Lindenwood, Missouri S&T, Northwest Kansas Technical College, Simpson, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Wartburg, William Penn, and William Woods.
Saturday morning, the Chargers began with American Trap. Even though it had not been a main training focus this semester, the team still put up a good score of 487. The team of sophomore Joshua Corbin (99/100), junior William Stuart (98), sophomore Kyle Fleck (97), freshman Davis Hay (97), and sophomore Gavin Drill (96) ended up finishing third among the colleges present.
Hillsdale shot American Skeet on Saturday afternoon. As they have for the past year, they scored incredibly well, finishing with 495/500. Six Chargers tied for the team slot with 99/100: Corbin, Stuart, Fleck, Hay, freshman Jordan Sapp, and senior Woodrow Glazer. Lindenwood's 496 put them only a single target ahead of Hillsdale. Junior Jessica Strasser earned the women's gold in the event while senior Ida Brown tied for women's second.
Sporting Clays was the only event that Hillsdale competed in on Sunday. Fleck (91/100), Corbin (90), Sapp (87), Drill (84), and Glazer (82) composed Hillsdale's team score of 434/500. They were again bested only by Lindenwood. Fleck's score was the third highest of all competitors while Strasser tied for women's third.
Combining all three disciplines, Hillsdale earned the honor of first place team High Overall. Their score of 1403 was only a single target ahead of multi-time DI National Champions Lindenwood. Corbin finished second in men's HOA followed closely by Fleck in third. Brown was second in women's HOA. Corbin and Fleck led the HOA squad along with Sapp, Hay, and Stuart.
"This was a great stepping stone on our way to Nationals in a few weeks. It's hard to think of a better way to start that path," said head coach Jordan Hintz. "There were a ton of positives, but also things that we need to keep improving on. Everyone is excited for the next few weeks."
The team will next compete in their own invitational on March 5th at Hillsdale's own Halter Center.
Full Team Placements:
1st Team HOA
2nd Men's HOA - Josh Corbin
3rd Men's HOA - Kyle Fleck
2nd Women's HOA - Ida Brown
2nd Team Skeet
1st Women's Skeet - Jessica Strasser
T-2nd Women's Skeet - Ida Brown
3rd Team Trap
2nd Women's Trap - Ida Brown
2nd Team Sporting Clays
3rd Men's Sporting Clays - Kyle Fleck
T-3rd Women's Sporting Clays - Jessica Strasser
Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13iJScM-cmcbbDR3nbB3wQIWFhlC_5nVo/edit#gid=509212157