CAMP PERRY, OHIO – Jared Perry, 31, of Porterville, CA, outlasted U.S. Army SSG Tyrel Cooper, 27, of Hamilton, GA, in a 10-shot shoot-off, winning the 2012 President’s Rifle Match on Monday, 30 July on Rodriguez Range. Perry topped Cooper with an aggregate score of 398-16X to Cooper’s 396-18X after both shooters entered the final with perfect 300’s fired in the qualification round.
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Jared Perry, of Porterville, California, won the 2012 President’s Rifle Match after firing a perfect 300 in the qualifying round of the match. Perry topped U.S. Army SSG Tyrel Cooper who also entered the final with a perfect 300 score. Perry won the match 398-16X to 396-18X.
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Cooper qualified with a 300-17X to Perry’s 300-13X, but both shooters knew from the first shot of the day that the outcome wouldn’t be certain until the final 10 shots were fired in the shoot-off at the 600-yard line on Rodriguez Range at the day’s end.
The President’s Rifle Match is unique in that it is fired in two components. The first is a 30-shot qualification round composed of slow-fire standing (200 yards), rapid-fire prone from standing (300 yards) and slow-fire prone (600 yards). The top 20 shooters then have the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of spectators in a shoulder-to-shoulder timed fire series. Those at the top of that group are challenged to hold or take the lead.
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Friends of Jared Perry drench him with ice water shortly after Perry received recognition as the match’s winner. Moments later Perry said it was a good day. “Coming in here and shooting a 300 is pretty special,” he said. Perry said he will shoot the infantry team match with his Coalinga, California club before returning home.
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With the top qualifiers coming into the shoot-off virtually deadlocked, it added another layer of intrigue to the shoot-off. In other matches an X-count would break the tie, but in President’s Rifle, the X-count gives way to the 10-shot final, forcing the top contenders to back up their qualifying round efforts.
Shooters were faced with a near full-value wind from east to west, making the first shot a challenging call. Cooper led with an eight and nine but by then it was too late to catch the Californian. Perry quickly recovered from a nine at 11 o’clock and dropped only one point the rest of the way.
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Robert Gill, of Visalia, California, is Jared Perry’s uncle and also fired in the shoot-off, finishing in ninth place with a 387-13X.
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GySgt Joshua Peterson, 28, USMC, of Fredericksburg, VA, placed third with an aggregate score of 392-14X. Peterson fired the highest score in the shoot-off – a 99-3X. He fired a 98-4X, 99-5X and 96-2X series in the qualifying round.
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SSG Tyrel Cooper prepares to send a round downrange during the President’s Rifle Match shoot-out. Cooper came into the final with a perfect 300 score with 17Xs.
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The top three junior shooters in the President’s Rifle Match were Isaac Dow, 18, of Grand Junction, CO, who reached the shoot-off and scored 388-15X, Fredric Fadeley, 19, of Phoenix, AZ and Tyler Plude, 20, of Avon, CT (289-6X). The high senior in the match was David Sullivan, 59, of Erie, CO and the high woman, reaching the final, was Sara Rozanski, 34, of Toledo, OH (390-10X).
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GySgt Joshua Peterson, of Fredericksburg, VA, makes notes in his scorebook between shots during the President’s Rifle Match. Peterson placed third with an aggregate score of 392-14X..
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A total of 1,246 competitors fired in the 2012 President’s Rifle Match. First fired in 1878, the President’s Rifle Match, a National Trophy Rifle Match, was incorporated into the National Match program after the matches were established in 1903. The President’s Rifle and Pistol Matches have become especially prestigious because the match winners traditionally receive letters of congratulations from the President of the United States of America.
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| Sara Rozanski was the high women’s
shooter in the President’s Rifle Match. She finished in
fourth place with a 390-10X. |
For complete results of the 2012 President’s Rifle Match, log onto
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=7982. To view and download photos from the 2012 National Matches and CMP Games, log onto
http://cmp1.zenfolio.com/. NEXT ARTICLE
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