ANNISTON, ALABAMA – More than 200 air rifle and air pistol shooters assembled at the CMP South Marksmanship Center on Saturday and Sunday, 3-4 December in hopes of getting their names on the short list for the 2012 U.S. Olympic 10-meter airgun teams for men and women. The USA Shooting event was the first of a two-part series of contests that will determine who will be selected to represent the U.S. in the 2012 Summer Games in London, England in July and August.
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The CMP North Marksmanship Center is the next stop for the USA Shooting Olympic Team Trials on 25-26 February. The trials are Part 2 of the process for selecting the men’s and women’s air rifle and air pistol teams that will represent the U.S. at the 2012 London Games this summer.
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Each part of the two-part trial are comprised of two 60-shot standing matches and finals in men’s air rifle and air pistol and two 40-shot standing matches and finals in women’s air rifle and air pistol. The leaders of Part 1 were determined by highest aggregate qualification scores plus the higher of the two finals fired over two days. The same course will be fired again in February. It’s safe to say that only those competitors who finished near the top will have a chance at locking up Olympic roster slots.
Shooters will assemble once again at the CMP North Marksmanship Center at Camp Perry, Ohio, on 25-26 February to fire the same sequence of qualifications and finals. Upon completion of the second event, aggregate scores from all four courses of fire and the two best finals will determine the top shooters to fill the available Olympic airgun team roster slots.
The resulting race among the top competitors at Camp Perry will be fierce as a handful of shooters will be pressing each other to win the London Games slots.
In Men’s Air Rifle at Anniston, CPL Matt Rawlings, 27, of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, Ft. Benning, Georgia, leads all competitors with an aggregate score of 1297.2, followed by Olympic veteran Matt Emmons, 30, of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, who fired a 1295.6. Jonathan Hall, 23, of Carrollton, Georgia, is currently third, roughly four points back, with a score of 1293.3.
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CPL Matt Rawlings leads
all competitors after Part 1 of the Olympic airgun
trials at the CMP Marksmanship Center at Anniston,
Alabama. | Olympic veteran
Matt Emmons holds second place in the airgun trials. He
earned gold and silver medals in prone rifle in the 2004
Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games, respectively. |
Jonathan Hall, winner of the 2010 NCAA national
individual air rifle championship while attending
Columbus State University, is currently third in the
airgun standings.
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In fourth place and 10 points behind the leader is Bryant Wallizer, 24, of Little Orleans, Maryland, who posted a 1287.1, topping CPT Chris Abalo, 25, of the USAMU, who holds fifth position with an aggregate score of 1285.3. High junior Connor Davis, 18, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, rounded out the top six positions with an aggregate of 1283.6.
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Bryant Wallizer, a
stand-out West Virginia University rifle team member is
holding onto fourth place.
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Chris Abalo, USAMU,
stands in fifth position in men’s air rifle with an
aggregate score of 1285.3.
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High junior Connor
Davis, the national Marine Corps Junior ROTC national
champion, rounds out the top six rifle positions with an
aggregate of 1283.6.
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USA Shooting rifle coach, Dave Johnson said he is pleased with the intensity of the men’s air rifle group. He said the leaders have been working hard to maintain their focus and will challenge each other down the stretch. Scores are markedly higher approaching the 2012 Games compared to 2008, which bodes well for the U.S. team, Johnson said.
The race among competitors in Women’s Air Rifle is much tighter as junior Sarah Scherer, 20, of Woburn, Massachusetts, and veteran Olympian Emily Caruso, 34, of Fairfield, Connecticut, are in a near tie for first with Scherer prevailing on center shots. Both women compiled 898 aggregates out of 900 points possible at Anniston, with a mere nine center shots separating them (Scherer 68, Caruso 59).
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Junior Sarah
Scherer, an NCAA national smallbore champion at Texas
Christian University, leads the women’s air rifle field
in the Olympic Trials.
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Olympian Emily
Caruso is a close second to Scherer, separated only by
nine center shots going to Camp Perry.
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Jamie Gray, a 2008
Olympian, holds onto third place, just 1.8 points behind
the leaders at 896.2.
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Jamie Gray (formerly Beyerle), 27, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and 2008 Olympian, holds onto third place, just 1.8 points behind the leaders at 896.2. Meghann Morrill, 25, of Charlottesville, Virginia, trails just seven-tenths behind Gray at 895.5. Two juniors, Emily Holsopple, 19, of Wilcox, Pennsylvania, are currently in fifth and sixth positions, respectively. Holsopple stands at 894.6 and Abigail Stanec, 20, of Wadsworth, Ohio, is about 10 points behind the leader with 888.3.
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Meghann Morrill, a
2011 National Championships gold medalist, trails Gray
and currently holds fourth place.
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Junior Emily
Holsopple, a member of the national champion University
of Kentucky rifle team, follows Morrill in fifth place.
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Abigail Stanec, a
sophomore member of the University of Mississippi rifle
team is about 10 points behind Scherer with 888.3
points.
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Coach Johnson said he is very excited about the growth of the women’s rifle field and pleased to have so many talented shooters challenging for roster spots in Part 2 of the trial.
“It’s a tight race among the women and it will make for a very competitive event at Camp Perry,” he said.
U.S. Army SFC Daryl Szarenski, 43, of Seale, Alabama, broke the USA Shooting national record in Men’s Air Pistol with 590 out of 600 on the first day of competition. The former record of 589 was held by Reuben Hafter and had been in place since 1990. SFC Szarenski also fired the highest final (101.8) which led him to set another national record with a qualification plus final score of 691.8.
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SFC Daryl Szarenski
set two new USA Shooting national records in Men’s Air
Pistol in Anniston. He leads a talented group of
shooters and leads the pack by more than 18 points.
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SFC Szarenski leads all shooters by more than 18 points going into Part 2 competition after the Anniston trial with an aggregate score of 1275.8. Jason Turner, 36, of Rochester, New York, holds second place with 1257.5, including his best final of 100.5. SFC Szarenski and Turner are both U.S. Olympic team veterans.
High junior Will Brown, 20, of Twin Falls, Idaho, trails Turner by six-tenths of a point at 1256.9.
In Women’s Air Pistol, PO1 Sandra Uptagrafft, USNR, 40, of Phenix City, Alabama, leads all competitors by a wide margin with a Part 1 aggregate score of 859.5. Junior Darian Shenk, 17, of Annville, Pennsylvania, follows in second place with 839.6 and fellow junior Kylie Gagnon, 20, of Bozeman, Montana is third at 836.2.
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Petty Officer First
Class, Sandra Uptagrafft, U.S. Navy Reserve, leads all
competitors by a wide margin in Women’s Air Pistol with
an aggregate score of 859.5
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Team USA pistol coach Sergey Luzov said SFC Szarenski has been performing at a very high level leading up to the trials.
“You saw what he did here yesterday (Dec. 3rd at Anniston). That was world-class – it was actually an Olympic gold level. There’s no reason to expect him to fall from the first position – I don’t see that happening,” Luzov said.
“I was very proud of how he performed on the second day as well. He backed up what he did yesterday with a very strong performance. His score was very good, but if you look closely at his score – there were several 9.9’s that made it very close to what he shot on Day I.”
“I knew Daryl was stronger than the others, but not by that much. It thought it would be tighter. For the rest of the group, they are in the hunt, all the way back to sixth place, for the second slot,” Luzov said.
“We have camps planned; we have World Cup competitions, we have a London test event on the Olympic range in April, we have European and U.S. camps and another tryout for those shooting Free Pistol in June at Nationals at Fort Benning. After that we have a challenge competition in Germany, a camp in Denmark, a pre-Olympic camp and then the Olympics,” Luzov said.
For complete results of the Olympic Team Trials, Part 1, log onto
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=7831. To view and download photographs from the event, log onto
http://cmp1.zenfolio.com.
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