Juniors Get an Opportunity to Learn and Excel at 2011 Eastern Junior Highpower Clinic and Championship

CAMP BUTNER, N. CAROLINA - Each year, the Civilian Marksmanship Program partners with the U.S. Marine Corps Service Rifle Team and others to provide junior highpower rifle shooters opportunities to learn new marksmanship skills in challenging clinics and championships.

Hands-on instruction from some of the nation’s finest military marksmen from the U.S. Marine Corps is one of the primary reasons junior highpower competitors attend the Eastern Junior Highpower Clinic and Championship.

In the waning days of June and first days of July, the Eastern Junior Highpower Clinic and Championship was conducted at Camp Butner National Guard Training Site near Durham, North Carolina. The event is designed to promote interest, education, and competition in the sport of highpower rifle shooting among junior shooters.

Each year members of the Junior Marksmanship Support Group, the U.S. Marine Corps and junior shooting coaches from across the U.S. come together with young competitors for a week of clinic instruction and match experience. It’s also an opportunity for junior shooters to come together to experience each other’s company and to form bonds of friendship and camaraderie within the sport.

Sgt Emily Windmassinger, one of the Marine Corps Rifle Team’s most successful competitors and instructors, enjoys a break in the day’s events at Camp Butner with a clinic participant.

The clinic provides lecture and hands-on topics such as data book management, position work, use of the rifle sling, effects of weather and more. The in-class material is blended with dry and live firing exercises and a series of championship matches which test the participants’ skills.

The matches included the Billy Atkins Team Match, the Bushmaster Trophy Match, the CMP Excellence in Competition (EIC) Match and the Infantry Team Match

Nash Neubauer, 17, of Brimfield, Illinois, was the high junior in the CMP EIC Match for non-distinguished shooters with an aggregate score of 485-9X out of 500 possible. Mary London, 17, of Statesville, N. Carolina, fired a 482-13X for second place and Shane O’Flynn, 19, of Reston, Virginia, placed third with a total score of 469-12X. London fired a 100-4X in her rapid-fire prone stage. Distinguished shooter Rico Tyler, 17, of Tucson, Arizona placed first overall in the event with an aggregate of 486-14X.

The week-long program provided junior shooters an opportunity to come together to experience each other’s company and to form bonds of friendship and camaraderie within the sport.

The EIC match consisted of 10 shots standing (200 yards), slow-fire, 10 shots sitting or kneeling (200 yards), rapid-fire, 10 shots prone (300 yards), rapid-fire and 20 shots prone (600 yards), slow-fire.

Jason Williams, 12, of Hendersonville, N. Carolina, won the Bushmaster Trophy Match with an aggregate score of 768-20X out of a possible 800 points. Robert Beazley III, 17, of Mooresville, N. Carolina, placed second (766-21X) and Nash Neubauer placed third (763-16).

The Bushmaster Trophy course of fire included 20 shots standing (200 yards), 20 shots sitting or kneeling (200 yards), rapid-fire, 20 shots prone (300 yards), rapid-fire and 20 shots prone (600 yards), slow-fire.

Damien Creech, 16, of Garner, North Carolina, and member of the Junior Marksmanship Support Group, works on dry-firing in the slinged sitting position at the 2011 junior camp. Summer campers of varying ages and experience come from all over the U.S. to work on marksmanship skills individually and with fellow shooters on the firing line under guidance from members of the Marine Corps Rifle Team.

The Infantry Team Match winner was Llamas With Hats with an aggregate score of 369. Firing members were Tyler Rico, Mary London, Matthew Tucker 17, of Grand Falls, Texas, Ian Foos, 14, of Bellevue, Ohio, Eric Tosh, 17, of Brookville, Pennsylvania and Joseph Albany, Jr., 16, of Kernersville, N. Carolina. In second place was Georgia Blind Dogs (352) fired by Robert Beazley III, David Twibell, 17, of Guyton, Georgia, Matthew Crisanti, 15, of Woodbury, Connecticut, Konnor Walter, 16, of Yorktown, Virginia and Alan Stewart, 15, of Dawson, Georgia. Third place went to Illinois Hard Dogs (316) fired by Michael, 17, Holly, 14 and Nash Neubauer, of Brimfield, Illinois.

For other aggregate scores and complete results of the 2011 Eastern Junior Highpower Clinic and Championship, log onto http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=6974. 

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