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| Jace Bures from Odell, Nebraska won the Junior Olympic Sporter Championship to sweep the summer’s three major junior championships. Enroute to victory, he set three new open national records. |
Jace Bures from tiny Odell, Nebraska (population 345) shattered the most prestigious sporter class national record on the books at the 2005 National Three-Position Air Rifle Championship. By the end of the competition, he not only won the individual sporter championship with a match record 1215 x 1300 score, but he established three new open national records.
Brandon Green of Bogalusa, Louisiana, who is now a member of the U. S. Army Rifle Team, set the old sporter 3x20 national record when he fired 562 on the final day of the 2002 National Guard Bureau Championship. The nation’s best sporter class shooters have been chasing that record ever since, but until Bures launched his attack on the record books this year, it had withstood all challenges.
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| A large gymnasium at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky was converted into a 72-point air rifle range for the National Guard, Daisy and Junior Olympic air rifle championships. |
Bures fired a 566 in the Nebraska 4-H Shooting Sports Championship in April, but he removed all doubt about his claim to the record when he fired a 570 on the second day of the Junior Olympic Championship at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bures, who is 17 years old, will be a high school senior in the fall. He fired scores of 197 prone, 177 standing and 196 kneeling enroute to the record. His 196 kneeling is also a new open record. Bures fired a 91 in the individual final to give him a third open national record of 661 for the 3x20 + final total. Green also held the old 3x20 + final record with a 652 score fired in 2002.
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| Individual sporter class champions were Jace Bures, 1st; Michael Ward, 2nd and Clint Sejkora, 3rd. |
Bures trailed the eventual second place winner, Michael Ward of Sapulpa, Oklahoma by five points after the first day’s firing. Ward had a 559 and Bures was second at 554. With a second day 570 and outstanding 91 in the final, Bures won the overall sporter title with a 1215 total. Ward, who won the 2005 National JROTC Sporter Class Championship in April, was second with 1194, while Bures’ Homestead 4-H Shooting Club teammate Clint Sejkora was third at 1191.
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| Four new Junior Distinguished Shooters received their badges from CMP Director Gary Anderson in a special ceremony during the Junior Olympic Championship. Individuals in the second row are juniors who have already received their badges. New badge holders are in the front row. They are (l. to r.) Clint Sejkora, Burchard NE; Jace Bures, Odell NE, Alexandra Shaffer, St. Augustine FL; Michael Ward, Sapulpa OK and CMP Director Anderson. |
Bures began his climb to the top of the national sporter class ranks in 2004 when he placed second in the National Guard Bureau Championship, third in the Daisy Championship, first in the National Junior Olympic and second in the American Legion competition. This year, he won all three of the major National Three-Position Air Rifle Championships that he is eligible to win. Before the Junior Olympic competition, he had already won the National Guard Bureau Championship in late June and the Daisy Championship, which took place just before the Junior Olympic competition. He said he now plans to shoot precision air rifle during his senior year to be better prepared for collegiate shooting where precision air rifles and smallbore rifles are used.
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| Age Group II medalists were Micaela Jochum, Homestead 4-H, NE, 1st; Lauren Strebel, LeJeune High School MCJROTC, NC, 2nd and Wren Burnett, Corvette City Shooting Club, KY, 3rd. |
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| Age Group III medalists were Cole Bures, Homestead 4-H, NE, 1st; Jennifer Medeiros, LaFayette, VA, 2nd and Elizabeth Embeck, Capital Area Rifle Club, PA, 3rd. |
Age group titles are awarded in the Junior Olympic Championship. Micaela Jochum, who is also a member of the Homestead 4-H team, was fourth overall and first in Age Group II for competitors with the 15th or 16th birthday in 2005. Jace Bures’ brother, 14-year-old Cole Bures, won the Age Group III title for competitors who are 14 or younger this year.
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| Medal winning teams in the Sporter Club Team competition were Homestead 4-H Shooting Sports, NE, 1st; Arlington International Airgun Club, IL, 2nd and Humboldt Sharpshooters, SD, 3rd. |
Two team titles are contested in the National Junior Olympic Championship, one for scholastic teams (JROTC or school teams) and one for club teams. With three shooters in the top four, the Homestead 4-H Shooting Club from Beatrice, Nebraska easily won the Sporter Club Team Championship. Their 4355 team aggregate was 120 points ahead of second place Arlington (IL) International Airgun Club and nearly 200 points ahead of the third place Humboldt (SD) Sharpshooters.
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| Medal winning teams in the Sporter Scholastic competition were Sapulpa HS MCJROTC, OK, 1st; Waiakea HS, HI, 2nd and Central Crossing HS NJROTC, OH, 3rd. |
The Sapulpa High School Marine Corps JROTC team from Sapulpa, Oklahoma won the Sporter Scholastic Team Championship with a 4243 total ahead of Waiakea High School from Hawaii and Central Crossing High School NJROTC from Ohio. This was the first time in the winner’s circle of a national competition for any of these three teams and demonstrates how more and more schools and clubs are developing and training outstanding sporter class competitors.
Results from this event are posted on the web site at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=951.
Pictures of this event are also posted on the CMP web site at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/05/BG/index.htm. |
