Daleville’s Katlyn Bass Establishes Six National Records in Her Coach’s Final Event at Gary Anderson Invitational in Anniston
By Steve Cooper, CMP Writer
ANNISTON, ALABAMA & CAMP PERRY, OHIO – Katlyn Bass, 16, of Daleville High School Army JROTC, Alabama, established six new sporter air rifle records at the 2011 Gary Anderson Invitational three-position air rifle championship on 9 &10 December. Bass fired her record scores in Anniston against regional competitors while dozens of others from northern regions participated simultaneously at CMP’s Ohio facility at Camp Perry.
Katlyn Bass, of Daleville High School Army JROTC, Alabama, set six new national records at the Gary Anderson Invitational in the sporter air rifle class. She is one of several outstanding shooters who have represented Daleville over the years.
Bass’s qualifying score of 574-28 surpassed the open/overall 3x20 sporter record of 573 set by Micaela Jochum in 2006. In doing so, Bass also set the Army JROTC record previously held by her former Daleville High School JROTC teammate Mikaelah Atchley (570-31). She also broke the records of Jochum and Atchley in the open/overall and Army JROTC 3x20 plus final with a combined score of 669.7, shattering the former mark by 5.9 points. Lastly, Bass broke both of Jochum’s Age Group II (15 & 16) records in the 3x20 and 3x20 plus final.
Katlyn Bass concentrates as she prepares to fire her record-breaking final at the 2011 Gary Anderson Invitational.
She fired a 197-12 in prone, 184-6 in standing and 193-10 in the kneeling position for a total qualification score of 574-28. Her final score of 95.7 ensured her the record-setting victory in the match. Brianna Sawyers, 16, of Ozark, Missouri, finished second overall with an aggregate score of 653.1 and Leigh Yarbrough, 17, of Waxhaw, North Carolina, placed third with a 643.7.
It was the last match for Daleville coach, LTC Ralph Aaron, U.S. Army (ret.), who retired six days later after leading the Daleville Army JROTC air rifle program for several years.
Daleville High School Army JROTC coach, LTC Ralph Aaron (far right), retired following the Gary Anderson Invitational. Among his teams’ achievements in his 13-year career as coach, were several individual and team championships. In 2011, his sporter team (pictured here) took home the silver medal at the National JROTC Championship.
During his tenure the sporter team won JROTC bronze in the 2009 postals and that same year David Hall set four national precision air rifle records at Camp Perry, he said. In 2010-11 the team won sporter silver at the JROTC Nationals. Along the way Mikaelah Atchley set eight national records in sporter air rifle.
The sporter team won the gold at the Army JROTC service championship in 2011 at Anniston, Alabama and again at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit's Jr. Championships. The team set two national records of 2223 in 2011 for Army JROTC and open class. The team also won the NRA Alabama state championship in 2011 while establishing the NRA JROTC national record of 2166.
The team has won 18 state championships in the past 13 years, winning both categories several times, LTC Aaron said. Daleville High School has announced that it has hired LTC Christopher Miller to replace the retiring LTC Aaron.
For complete results of the 2011 Gary Anderson Invitational, log onto
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=7565. To view photos from the event, log onto
http://cmp1.zenfolio.com/.