On 21-23 February, the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO hosted the 2008 JROTC Western Region Three-Position Air Rifle Championship. This competition was the final qualifying round for the 2008 JROTC National Championship, which will be held at Fort Benning, GA on 27-29 March. In all 324 juniors and 61 teams qualified for the Western Region from a pool of nearly 6,000 competitors in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force JROTC Postal Competitions that took place in November and December 2007. Only the top ten percent of the competitors who fired the postal advanced to the Eastern and Western Region Championships. The Eastern Region took place at Fort Benning on 14-16 February, and those shooters will join the qualifiers from the Western in the upcoming JROTC National Championship.

Cadets traveled from 23 states and Guam to compete in the Colorado Springs matches, which has been steadily growing since their inception in 2004. The Air Force was a new addition to the 2008 line-up with its first-ever representatives in the Western Region matches. Three-position air rifle is a new addition to the Air Force JROTC curriculum and the number of units authorized to conduct programs is quickly growing. Despite the fact the program is now in just its second year, 21 individuals and 4 teams qualified to compete in the Western Region.

The competition took place over two days to accommodate all the shooters and was broken into sporter and precision classes for both individual and team events. All competitors fired a 3x20 course of fire that counted for team results as well as the qualification round to determine individual finalists. The top eight sporter and precision class individuals in each service then advanced to individual finals.

For most of these junior competitors, this is the largest shoulder-to-shoulder match they shoot all year, and it is quiet a learning experience. In addition to the match, shooters go through equipment check to clear their rifle and shooting clothing, fire a practice relay, attend an instructional clinic and have a closing awards banquet where cadets and instructors wear their dress uniforms. National Rifle Coach David Johnson was the clinic instructor. These special activities added to the excitement of the cadets’ experience and made for a busy three days.

The facilities at the Olympic Training Center are part of the alure of the Western Region. This is the home range of the US National Shooting Team, and cadets shot on the same range that would play host to the US Olympic Air Gun Trials the following weekend.

The special activities were a nice addition to the match, but once competition got under way on Friday it was all business for the competitors. It was also all business for the CMP Staff as they scanned and scored 2,000 targets over two days of competition using the Visual Image Scoring Technology called Orion. This system cuts the needed manpower to score so many targets down to a quarter of what was needed for traditional paper target scoring. Also aiding in the process were the new Kruger paper targets acquired by CMP shortly before the match. This German produced paper is well known for producing clean shot holes even when hit by velocity sporter air rifles.

The advancement in paper must have paid off because several excellent scores, and even a couple of National Records where shot at the Western Region this year. On day one in the precision class, Kelly Audet, a junior at Burke HS in Omaha, NE set the bar very high when she shot a 589, while equaling the Army JROTC National Record with a 199 in Kneeling. Audet followed up her performance with a 96.2 Final the next day to give her a 685.2 total and clinch the top spot for the Army in the Western Region. The 4’10” Audet has the distinction of attending the same high school as Air Rifle Olympian Jason Parker, who just qualified for his third Olympic Games on 3 March.

Other shooters topping off the precision class were Parker Tomasi of La Cueva HS from Albuquerque, NM who claimed the Marine Corps Western Region title with a 584+97.4=685.2. Taking the Navy Western Region title in precision was Katie Fuller from Manzano HS from Tijeras, NM. Fuller followed up a 574 with a 101.9 Final to move from third to first place.

In the precision team category Del Valle HS from El Paso, TX was the top team for the Army. The team was led by coach Gary Crafton and scoring team members Juan Gaucin, 577, Juan Arceo, 576, Lorenzo Hernandez, 569 and Atenas Bojorquez, 563, combined for a team total of 2285. For the Marine Corps, La Cueva HS from Albuquerque, NM claimed the Western Region for the second year in a row, and their team score of 2291 was an improvement of 12 points over last year. The team was coached by MAJ Bill Barker and firing team members were Parker Tomasi, 584, Samantha Shankles, 573, Ryan Kearney, 569 and Allison Egan, 565. Manzano HS from Albuquerque, NM finished first for the Navy with a 2284. The team was coached by LtCol Zachary Forester III and scoring team members were Dustin Chavez, 579, Katie Fuller, 574, Dominic Quintana, 567 and Kirsten Moyer, 564.

In the sporter class Austin Maughan of Clearfield HS from Syracuse, UT claimed the first Western Region title for the Air Force with a 532+82.3=614.3. Marco Aguayo of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo from San Juan, TX was the top shooter for the Army with a 556+89.0=645. For the Marine Corps Christopher Morris of Sapulpa HS from Sapulpa, OK took the top spot with a 555+87.1=642.1. Morris tied a Marine Corps JROTC standing National Record with his 181 score in that position. To wrap up the group Michael Call of Highland HS from Albuquerque, NM was the top sporter shooter for the Navy with a 553+91.1=644.1.

For the sporter team category Tuba City HS from Tuba City, AZ was the highest finisher for the Marine Corps for the second year in a row at the Western Region. Darrell Robbins, 551, Ashley Manygoats, 537, Stephen Goldtooth, 526 and Kevin Haskey combined for 2123 under the guidance of GySgt Tim Shaner. Ozark HS from Ozark, MO was the first place team for the Army with a 2158. The team was coached by 1SGT Terrance Thompson and team members were Kelsey Hunt, 546, Shawn Spradling, 545, Alan Snyder, 534 and Jacob Edwards, 533. The Navy’s top sporter team was Reed HS from Reno, NV with a 2130. Scoring team members were Megan More, 545, Eric Joslin, 531, Chelsey Harlan, 528 and Sarah Conkey, 526. The team was led by coach Darwin Sharpe. The first Air Force team to win the Western Region was Clearfield HS from Clearfield, UT. The team was coached by MAJ Kit Workman and scoring team members Austin Maughan, 532, Zachary Lowe, 516, Paden Conway, 515 and Gregory Carlson combined for a team score of 2066.

To conclude the weekend an awards banquet was held that Saturday evening, and over 600 cadets, coaches and family members attended. DCM Gary Anderson led the ceremony and USA Shooting’s Director of Junior Programs, Bob Foth, was a featured presenter. In addition to the team and individual awards for each Service, nine juniors who competed at Colorado Springs received their Junior Distinguished Badges that evening. This award requires that a junior consistently excel at national level matches in order to earn points towards a Junior Distinguished Badge. In all, 30 points are needed to receive the Badge. Only 193 juniors have earned this award since it was introduced in 2001. Recipients of the Junior Distinguished Badge at the 2008 JROTC Western Region were Parker Tomasi, LaCueva HS, NM; Samantha Shankles, LaCueva HS, NM; Robert Thompson, Ozark HS, MO; Kelsea Hunt, Ozark HS, MO; Amanda Aquilera, RL Paschal HS, TX; Patrick Haney, Manzano HS, NM; Xentri Garza, RL Paschal HS, TX and Dave Piotrowski, Zion-Benton HS, IL.

The top two teams and top three at-large individuals in both classes among Navy and Army competitors in this event advanced to the National JROTC Championship. For the Air Force the top team and top two at-large individuals qualify. Marine Corps qualifiers were determined by combining the scores from the Eastern Region MCJROTC Championship one week earlier to select the top four sporter and top four precision teams, plus the top six at-large qualifiers in each class.

JROTC Nationals qualifiers from the Western Region are posted on the CMP web site at http://www.odcmp.com/3P/jrotcinvites.htm, together with other information about the JROTC Nationals.

Complete results for the Western Region Championship are posted on the CMP website at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=2818. Results for the Eastern Region Championship can be found at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=2817. Photos taken during the competition and award ceremony are posted at: http://www.odcmp.com/Photos.htm.

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