2005 JROTC Nationals

By Dale Miles, CMP Writer

The 2005 JROTC Nationals took place on Fort Benning’s Pool Range. The 10-meter range features electronic targets and scoreboards that show instant results for spectators. Competitors fire from tables in the kneeling and prone positions on the Pool Range.

With professional baseball returning to Washington D.C., hearing people talk about “The Nationals” has come to mean a little more these days. However, for young shooters who belong to JROTC rifle teams, “The Nationals” means something entirely different and the weight of the phrase has not changed. It is a big deal for them to qualify for “The Nationals” – the National JROTC Air Rifle Championship, that is. The 2005 event took place on 22-23 April at the Pool Shooting Range Complex at Ft. Benning, Georgia, the home of the Army Marksmanship Unit.

In its three years, the JROTC Nationals has become one of the nation’s most prestigious championships for high school shooting teams. The Nationals give top Army, Navy and Marine Corps JROTC teams from all over the country, as well as from American schools overseas, the chance to compete against the best in their sport. This high level of competition often brings out record-setting performances in these young shooters. This year was no exception. By the end of the second day of competition, 13 individual three-position air rifle national records and one team record were broken or tied.

Michael Ward, who represented Sapulpa, Oklahoma High School MCJROTC, set or tied five national records enroute to his victory as the National JROTC sporter class individual champion.

Leading the record setters were the individual sporter champion Michael Ward of Sapulpa, Oklahoma who set five Marine Corps JROTC records. Other national record scores were posted by Michael Dickinson, Carroll High School, Ozark, Alabama (3 records); Brian Phillips, Bogalusa High School, Bogalusa, Louisiana (2 records); Kyle Phillips, Luella High School, Stockbridge, Georgia (2 records); Artiom Reynolds, La Cueva High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico (1 record) and Eric Poulsen, Zion-Benton High School, Zion, Illinois (1 record). Henry County High School, Stockbridge, Georgia set a new Navy JROTC team record with a 2265 score that broke a record set by Virginia’s King George High School at the Navy JROTC Championship earlier in the week.

LaCueva High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, won the precision class team championship in the 2005 JROTC Nationals. LaCueva team member Artiom Reynolds, far right, won the individual precision gold medal.

In winning the individual sporter championship, Ward fired the highest total score in the three-year history of the JROTC Nationals. He fired individual daily 3x20 scores of 555 and 556. He struggled with his first day final, posting a 83.7, but his second day final score of 95.1 was the highest sporter final ever recorded in a match. His final sporter class total was over nine points ahead of silver medalist Blake Phillips of Bogalusa, Louisiana and 24 points ahead of bronze medalist Charles Henley, also of Bogalusa.

With medal-winning performances by Phillips and Henley, along with solid scores from Bogalusa team members Tucker Lee and Jordan Pritchard, the Bogalusa team easily won the sporter class team title with a score of 4310. This is the second National JROTC Sporter Air Rifle Championship for the Bogalusa Army JROTC team. Second place was awarded to another Army JROTC team from Ripley High School (TN) for their score of 4252. In third place, a Navy JROTC team from Oak Harbor High School (WA) fired a combined score of 4194.

Kyle Phillips, a 15-year-old NJROTC freshman from Luella High School in Georgia won the individual silver medal in the precision class. His 199 kneeling set a new NJROTC record for that position.

A Marine Corps JROTC team took top honors in the precision team category as well as in the precision individual event. This meant Marine Corps JROTC competitors won three of the four championship titles in the 2005 National JROTC Championship. Army and Navy JROTC riflery programs were most likely adversely affected by the shortened riflery season they experienced due to program stand-downs instituted by their respective cadet commands because of serious safety concerns.

Michael Dickinson, Ozark, Alabama placed third overall in the precision class. Dickinson had the highest score on the second day of competition with a 588 and his 199 kneeling set an new Army JROTC national record for that position.

In the individual precision category, Artiom Reynolds, a senior from La Cueva High School (NM) Marine Corps JROTC jumped out to a day one lead. He fired the top day one qualification round score of 583 as well as the day’s best final of 99.8. On day two, Michael Dickinson, an Army JROTC cadet from Carroll High School (AL) had the top individual score of 588. Dickinson could not overcome the slow start he had on day one when he fired a 572 that did not make the final for that day. Reynolds finished the competition in first place, taking the title of National JROTC Air Rifle Championship Precision Class Champion with his two-day aggregate of 1263.55. Dickinson finished with a score of 1253.1, to earn the bronze medal. In second place, earning the silver medal, was Kyle Phillips, a 15-year-old freshman representing Luella High School (GA) Navy JROTC. Phillips finished with a 1254.45.

During the JROTC Nationals, Major Mike Anti, 2004 Olympic Games silver medalist in the men’s 50 meter three-position rifle event and a member of the U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit, autographed posters for participating competitors.

Individual precision gold medalist Reynolds also led his team to victory in the team event. La Cueva High School’s combined team score of 4591 bested the second place team by 40 pts. Coming in second was another Marine Corps JROTC team from Shelby County High School (KY) with a score of 4551. Shelby County won the National JROTC Championship precision team title in the first two years of the competition. This year, however, was a rebuilding year for them; all four members of Shelby County’s 2004 gold medal team graduated. Rounding out the top three teams in the competition was the Navy JROTC team from Brunswick High School (GA) that won a bronze medal with their team score of 4518.

Complete results for all competitors in the 2005 National JROTC Air Rifle Championship are posted on-line at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=806.