Osborn & Kleinhans Earn National Jr Team Spots in Junior Olympic 3PAR Championships
OutdoorHub 06.30.14
Some very talented and dedicated three-position air rifle (3PAR) athletes converged on the newly remodeled and enlarged Gary Anderson CMP (Civilian Marksmanship Program) Competition Center at Camp Perry, Ohio, last Friday to compete for two coveted USA Shooting National Junior Rifle Team (NJT) slots as part of the National Junior Olympic 3-Position Air Rifle National Championships. Athletes who competed at Camp Perry qualified for Nationals during State Championship qualifying conducted earlier this spring.
Driven by a personal goal of qualifying for the USAS NJT at the Junior Olympic Nationals, 15-year-old Sarah Osborn (Hampton, Virginia) of the Patriot Shooting Club bested 220 other competitors to win the individual gold medal and a coveted slot on the USAS NJT with room to spare. Her qualifying score of 593 and final round score of 103.0 gave her a 3.4 point lead at the conclusion of the event.
Osborn’s star is certainly rising having shown she can compete previously at the 2014 National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) finishing second in her age division for air rifle and winning her age division in three-position smallbore (.22 caliber) rifle.
Taking the silver medal was Kristyn Trump (DuBois, Pennsylvania) of the DuBois Jr Rifle Team with a Finals score of 101.6 for an aggregate score of 692.6.
The top male finisher was 14-year-old Justin Kleinhans (Oak Harbor, Ohio) of the Black Swamp Jr. Rifle Team, who finished third overall with a 590/101.3. As the top male finisher, Kleinhans also earned a position on USA Shooting’s National Junior Team.
According to USA Shooting’s Youth Development Director Michael Theimer, the finals were a showcase of top shooting talent with athletes going all-out for a chance to wear the USA Shooting Team jacket. “We will see and hear more from these young 3PAR athletes,” he acknowledged. “Their hard work and long hours of training paid off for them here at Camp Perry.”
The remaining event finalists in finishing order included Alec Patajo (Puyallup, Washington) of the West Seattle Totems Rifle Club, Madeline Godwin (Hampton, Va.) of the Patriot Shooting Club, Lillian Vonderau (Helena, Alabama) of Shelby County Shooting Sports Association, Justin Nissen (Live Oak, California) of CRPA/Sutter Union Gold and Amy Gentry (Fairbanks, Alaska) of the Midnight Sun Sharpshooters. Patajo was the J3 (14 years & younger) National Champion at the 2014 NJOSC back in April in both the air and three-position smallbore rifle events.
The National Junior Olympic team title was earned by the sharpshooters of the Hardcore 4 Shooting Club based out of Winder, Georgia and led by Al Bowen. They defeated the Virginia-based Patriot Shooting Club by one point despite not having one athlete in the finals compared to Patriot’s champion shooter Osborn and fifth-place shooter Godwin. They did so by being the only team to place three competitors inside the top-20 finishers with Brandon Thomas finishing 13th, Dana Bowen 18th and Mary Pratt 20th. The CRPA Sutter Union Gold Rifle Team, led by Nissen’s seventh-place result, finished third.
Three-Position Air Rifle Shooting is the most popular and fastest growing form of shooting sports competition for youth of high school age or younger with two different events available. Precision is modeled after Olympic-style shooting and allows the use of specialized target rifles and equipment. Sporter is designed for athletes and programs that desire to compete with a minimum of equipment and expense. The CMP, which hosted and conducted this Championship, actively promotes Three-Position Air Rifle shooting as a premier youth marksmanship competition by providing low-cost equipment and pellets as well as training curriculum materials and competition activities.
Three-position air rifle shooting is promoted and governed by the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council whose members include The Air Force Cadet Command (AFJROTC), American Legion, Army Cadet Command (AJROTC), Boy Scouts of America Venturing, Civilian Marksmanship Program, Daisy/U. S. Jaycee Shooter Education Program, Marine Corps Training and Education Command (MCJROTC), National 4-H Shooting Sports, U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit, Naval Education and Training Command (NJROTC) and USA Shooting.
