The U. S. Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship is now taking entries for the 2009-2010 State Championship postal competition. This Championship is sponsored by the Army Marksmanship Unit and is open to all junior shooting organizations that have school-age juniors as members or enrollees (high school seniors or below). Participation by as many junior teams, clubs, 4-H clubs, JROTC units or other organizations around the country is encouraged.

The State Championship postal competition gives both sporter and precision class position junior shooters of all levels of ability an opportunity to test their marksmanship skills against other juniors in their home states during the nation-wide postal competition. The postal phase features two separate events, a 3x10 sporter air rifle event (10 shots in each position, prone, standing and kneeling, fired in that order) and a 40 shot precision standing air rifle event (4x10 or 2x20 standing). Juniors may fire the State Championship postal competition in either or both events.

Yvonne Swiontek, who represented Zion-Benton High School, Zion-Benton, Illinois, won the 2009 U. S. Army Individual Sporter Class Championship.

The CMP manages the State Championship postal phase of this competition by taking online registrations, mailing target sets, scoring targets and posting results. Competitor information is printed on each set of targets before they are sent out to be fired on home ranges. Once the targets are fired, teams send the targets back to be scored by CMP staff members using the Orion scoring system. This program takes digital images of targets and has the ability to score shots quickly and accurately. Results from the postal phase will be posted on the CMP’s website as soon as the targets are scanned and scored.

The CMP will award U.S. Army Air Rifle State Championship Medals in every state where there are participating teams.