SGT Tyrel Cooper Claims
National Trophy Individual Title
By Sommer Wood, CMP Writer
GySgt R. Lee Ermey presents Tyler Rico with a Compass Lake AR-15-Type match rifle donated by Compass Lake Engineering. Rico was the high overall junior in the National Trophy Rifle Matches with an aggregate score of 1262-35.
Last year SGT Tyrel Cooper of the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) had a strong finish in the National Trophy Individual Match, but still fell just short of the overall title. He finished second by two-points to MSG Jack Pardy, USAR, with a 493-18 to Pardy’s 495-18. This year the match was determined by a much smaller margin, but after the last scorecard was entered, SGT Cooper found himself at the top of the leader board. It took x-counts to win the match, as SGT Cooper finished the day with a 595-23, edging out his AMU teammate, SFC Lance Dement, who shot a 495-20 to claim second.
SGT Cooper has faired well at Camp Perry in previous years, even winning the Mountain Man Trophy in 2008, which is awarded to the shooter at the National Matches with the highest aggregate for the President’s 100, National Trophy Individual (NTI) and National Trophy Team (NTT) Matches. He was also the high individual in the NTT in 2008, but a victory in the NTI has eluded SGT Cooper until now.
BG Rufus Smith, Commander, 174 Air Defense Artillery Brigade, awards SGT Cooper with a special CMP presentation M1 Garand rifle.
Entering the final stage of this year’s NTI, SGT Cooper knew first place was still within reach, though at the time everyone on the line was watching SSgt Leigh Jenks III of the Army National Guard who cleaned the first three stages of the match. SGT Cooper said that he tried not to focus on score and instead talked about wind strategy for the 600-yard-line with AMU coach SFC Emil Praslick III. “I have lead in the past and let myself start thinking too much about scores. As I went to the 600, I knew I was in a good position and score did cross my mind, but I have learned this can take away from what you have to do on the line. I switched my focus to the strategy I wanted to use for the wind and followed my plan,” said SGT Cooper.
The plan worked and SGT Cooper shot a 197-9 at the 600-yard-line to secure first place. In fact, several AMU shooters had strong finishes to take the top four spots in the match. SSgt Jenks, who started the match with a 300-10, had a respectable final stage and finished eighth overall with a 492-14.
Tyler Rico of Tucson, AZ was the top junior of the NTI, a feat he also accomplished in 2009. Last year Rico also finished second overall in the President’s 100, and won both this year and last year’s Col. Bill Deneke Trophy awarded to the top junior shooter in an aggregate of the President’s 100, NTI and the National Trophy Junior Team Match.
The EIC cut-off for the NTI was 470-4x. Complete results can be found at
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_eventAward.cgi?matchID=5690&eventID=2&awardID=1, and photos for the 2010 National Trophy Matches can be found at
http://cmp1.zenfolio.com/.