Kentucky JROTC Team Wins National Junior Olympic Titles

The National Junior Olympic Three-Position Air Rifle Championship has become the premier three-position championship in the country because its qualifying state competitions are open to all school-age junior shooters, who must then qualify for the nationals by being on a state champion team or one of the top 15 at-large individual shooters.

A total of 27 state champion teams competed in the National Junior Olympic Championship that took place at Ashley High School in Wilmington, North Carolina in June. Fifteen teams qualified and competed in the Club Team category while 12 teams fired in the Scholastic Team category. There were 112 individual shooters in the competition.

This year, in contrast with previous years, the highest team scores and closest competition was in the Scholastic Team group where teams must represent high schools. Shelby County High School Marine Corps JROTC from Shelbyville, Kentucky fired the highest overall team score with a 4637 total to win the CMP "Tatanka" Trophy as the top scholastic team. Close on Shelby County's heels was the St. Louis University High School Team from Missouri with a 4627 team score. The third highest overall team score was the winning Club Team score of 4621 fired by the Palmyra Wrecking Crew II from Pennsylvania.

This was the second major three-position air rifle national team championship won by the Shelby County team. Their Marine Corps JROTC team won the 1st JROTC National Precision Category Team Championship at Fort Benning, Georgia in March.

Shelby County High School senior Leah Wilcox won the individual championship with a first day score of 594, a second day total of 589 and a final round standing score of 95. This gave Wilcox a nine point victory over Daniel Belluzzo of the Northern Minnesota Club. Rachael Glenn, who competed for the Yellowstone Rifle Club from Montana, finished just four points behind Belluzzo in third place.

The 2003 Junior Olympic Precision Individual Champion was Leah Wilcox from Shelbyville, Kentucky, High School. Wilcox fired a 1278 total score. She accepted a scholarship to shoot with the University of Texas-El Paso college team.

The top three teams in competition for the CMP “Tatanka” Trophy that is awarded to the highest scoring scholastic team in the National Junior Olympic precision category team competition. Shelby County High School (KY, center, 1st), St. Louis University High School (MO, left, 2nd) and Sutter Union High School (CA, right, 3rd) were the award winning teams.

The top three teams in the Club Team category were the Palmyra Wrecking Crew II (PA, center, 1st), the CSRRA Nutmeggers (CT, left, 2nd) and Club Riverside (right, 3rd).

The top three individual shooters in the precision category were Leah Wilcox, Shelbyville High School (KY, center, 1st), Daniel Belluzzo, Northern Minnesota (MN, left, 2nd) and Rachael Glenn, Yellowstone Rifle Club (MT, right, 3rd).

During the Junior Olympic Championship award ceremony Junior Distinguished Badge #27 was presented to Michael Nulk, who recently graduated from LaCueva High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The badge was presented by CMP Director Gary Anderson. Nulk competed in the championship, but had earned his Junior Distinguished Badge in earlier competitions. He departed immediately following the Junior Olympic Championship for West Point where he became a new USMA Cadet.