Michaela Jochum, 16, from Beatrice, Nebraska, set a new open national prone record in the NGB Championship with a 199x200 score. She fired the new record with a Daisy M888 CO2 rifle equipped with standard Daisy sights. Jochum won the overall sporter championship by 44 points over the second place competitor.

In what could turn out to be the National Guard Bureau’s last National Junior Air Rifle Tournament, 16-year-old Michaela Jochum from Beatrice, Nebraska turned in a dominating performance to win the individual sporter class championship by 44 points and lead her team, the Homestead 4-H Shooting Club, to the sporter class team championship.

In two days of competition, Jochum fired a 550 on the first day and a near-record 567 on the second day. She began her second day with a new sporter class national record prone score of 199 x 200. She qualified for the final (top eight individual 3x20 scores) both days and had the high final score in each. In the end, she finished 44 points ahead of second place Matthew Ripley, who represented Ripley High School Army JROTC, Henning, Tennessee.

The National Guard Bureau Junior Championship begins with a postal competition that is fired in the months of January and February. This year, 716 individuals and 103 teams fired the sporter class event over a 3x10 course of fire. 310 individuals and 49 teams fired the precision class 40-shot standing postal. Seven sporter class teams and six precision class teams accepted the invitation to travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky on 27-29 June to compete in the NGB national competition.

The sporter class team title was taken by the defending champion, the Homestead 4-H Shooting Club from Beatrice, Nebraska. Their winning 4171 score was down from the near-record 4262 total Homestead fired in 2005, but it was enough to win over the second place Lafayette Gun Club team from Virginia.

16-year-old Ashley Rose, Eubank, Kentucky, won the precision class standing title in the 2006 National Guard Bureau Junior Air Rifle Tournament.

In the precision standing individual competition, Kyle Smith from Dubois, Pennsylvania topped the leader board after the first day with a 387 40-shot score and a 94 final. Ashley Rose from Eubank, Kentucky was in 6th place after the first day, but fired an excellent 391 on the second day together with a 96 final to edge Shasta Little from Redmond, Oregon 867.5 to 866.5.

The DuBois Junior Rifle Club from Dubois, Pennsylvania built up a 14-point lead over the High Desert Eagles from Oregon to win the precision standing team title 3034 to 3020.

Individual and team awards were presented at the end of the championship by Colonel John Lowry, Commander of the National Guard Marksmanship Unit and Lt. Col. Mike Clites, Deputy Commander. The CMP provided results operations for the postal and national competition and donated $1,000 cash awards to the first place sporter and precision teams and $500 cash awards to the two second place teams. The CMP also provided an Anschütz M8002 air rifle to the winning precision team and an XSV40 Avanti air rifle to the winning sporter team.

For complete results, visit http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=1163. Additional photos can be viewed at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/06/NGB_Champ/index.htm.

The NGB Junior Championship closed on a sad note since mission realignments and budget cut-backs for the National Guard Marksmanship Training Unit have now forced them to drop their junior air rifle program.