144 JROTC Cadets representing 62 JROTC units in 25 states and one Defense Department high school in Germany qualified for the 2008 National JROTC Air Rifle Championship that will take place on Army Marksmanship Unit facilities at Fort Benning, Georgia on 27-29 March. This year’s qualifiers include, for the first time, Air Force Cadets. The JROTC Nationals now take place in early spring and culminate the shooting seasons for Army, Marine Corps, Navy and now Air Force JROTC Cadets.

An estimated 100,000 cadets in 1,700 JROTC units nationwide participate in the instructional phase of the JROTC program that typically begins in the fall of each year. The competition phase of the program begins in November and December when JROTC units with rifle teams fire in JROTC Postals. This year, 5,978 cadets and 1,101 unit teams participated in the four service’s postal competitions. This was the largest participation ever in these competitions.

The JROTC Nationals offer both team and individual events in both sporter and precision classes. This year’s sporter qualifiers include four Army, Marine Corps and Navy teams and two teams from the new Air Force program. The Air Force has not yet ventured into precision class competition, but four unit teams each from the Army, Marine Corps and Navy JROTC programs will compete for precision class honors.

At-large individual qualifiers are cadets who had high individual scores in the Region Championships, but whose teams did not qualify for the Nationals. 22 at-large qualifiers, six each from the Army, Marine Corps and Navy and four from the Air Force, will compete in sporter class. 18 at-large qualifiers will contend for individual titles in the precision class. The individual sporter and precision class championships at the JROTC Nationals will include all team members plus the at-large individuals.

King George High School NJROTC from King George, Virginia, was the top sporter qualifier with a score of 2170. King George won the 2007 JROTC National Sporter Class team championship with a 2164 average over two days of firing. The second highest sporter team qualifier was Ozark High School AJROTC from Ozark, Missouri, with a 2158. The Ozark team set the current sporter team national record at the Montgomery Bell Classic last October where they fired 2197. Other teams that can be expected to challenge for the national title at Fort Benning include R. L. Paschal High School AJROTC from Fort Worth, Texas, that qualified at 2140; Reed High School NJROTC from Sparks, Nevada, that qualified at 2130 and Tuba City High School MCJROTC from Tuba City, Arizona, that qualified at 2123.

The top precision class team qualifier was another Navy team, Union Grove High School NJROTC from McDonough, Georgia. Union Grove fired a 2314 in the Eastern Region Championship. Other top precision qualifiers were East Coweta High School MCJROTC, Sharpsburg, Georgia, 2304; La Cueva High School MCJROTC, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2291; Del Valle High School AJROTC, El Paso, Texas, 2285; Henry County High School NJROTC, McDonough, Georgia, also 2185 and Manzano High School MCJROTC, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Henry County won the 2007 JROTC Nationals precision team competition. With qualifying scores that close, any one of the top six or eight precision team qualifiers could win the national title.

At Fort Benning, teams will fire one 4x3x20 course of fire on Friday, 28 March, and a second 4x3x20 course on Saturday. All team firing is scheduled to finish at 3:00 PM on 29 March. Persons who are following the competition results on the CMP web site should be able to view final team results at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=2819 at that time.

The CMP is providing $11,000 in cash awards to the winning teams. The overall winning precision and sporter teams receive $2,000 each. The top sporter and precision teams representing each service will receive $1,000 each.

The top individual sporter class scores in the Eastern and Western Region Championships were a 648.4 aggregate fired by Nicole Heitmeyer of King George High School in the East and a 645.0 total by Marco Aguyo from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School in San Juan, Texas, in the West. The best precision class Region scores were a 685.2 total fired by Kelly Audet of Burke High School of Omaha, Nebraska in the West and a 684.8 final score by East Coweta High School’s Courtney Duncan in the East.

To determine the National JROTC individual championships at Fort Benning, there will be an individual final on each day of competition. The top eight individuals in each rifle class on Friday will fire a sporter final that starts at 4:30 PM and a precision final that will start after the sporter final at about 5:15 PM. The top eight individual competitors in each class on Saturday will fire a second final with the precision final starting at 3:30 PM and the sporter final at 4:15.

Anyone who would like to view these finals on-line as they are fired shot-by-shot can do so by logging onto the results page at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=2819 and then opening the page for the Individual Sporter or Precision Class Final. Final round competitions can be especially interesting when the scores are close and individual places change after each shot.

Congratulations is extended to every JROTC unit team and at-large individual that qualified for the 2008 National JROTC Air Rifle Championship at Fort Benning. The complete list of qualifiers plus other championship information is posted at http://www.odcmp.com/3P/jrotcinvites.htm. Good luck at Fort Benning!

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