Blanchard, English Take Home Skeet Titles at Shotgun Junior Olympics

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 28, 2009)

The Skeet finals were held at the 2009 Shotgun National Junior Olympics yesterday at Ft. Carson’s International Shooting Park with Olympic Training Center Resident Athletes BJ Blanchard (Vidor, Texas) and Amber English (Colorado Springs, Colo.) claiming their respective titles.

Blanchard finished in first place for the men with a total of 147 targets. Rob Horton (Eatonton, Ga.) took second place with 144 targets and Jon Michael McGrath (Tulsa, Okla.) finished third with 143 hits.

English earned the top spot for the women after an exciting shoot-off with Ali Chiang (Redwood Shores, Calif.). Both shooters were tied at 138 targets at the conclusion of the final and in the shoot-off, English shot five targets to Chiang’s four to take home the title. Chiang took second place and third place went to Morgan Craft (Hughesville, Pa.) who finished with 133 total hits.

Other top finishers in the Skeet event include:

Junior Men
J2 First Place – TJ Bayer, 118
J2 Second Place – Granger DeWitt, 118
J2 Third Place – Nash Porter, 116

J3 First Place – Philip Jungman, 114
J3 Second Place – Luis (Taz) Gloria, 112
J3 Third Place – Roy Chavalittlekha, 110

Junior Women
J2 First Place – Brandy Drozd, 106
J2 Second Place – Gayla Gregory, 88
J2 Third Place – Olivia Ornouski, 84

J3 First Place – Kaycee McNutt, 39

For the third consecutive year, USA Shooting and the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) teamed up to host the National Junior Olympic Championships, giving many more young shooters the opportunity to compete in the event.

The top SCTP individual finishers in Skeet include:

High Male Overall
Tanner Brooks, 113

Men’s Senior Varsity
First Place – Brandon Belanger, 136
Second Place – Jimmy Gibson, 131
Third Place - Luis (Taz) Gloria, 131

Men’s Junior Varsity
First Place – Glenn Carl, 110
Second Place – Jakob Keldsen, 110
Third Place – Richard Riddle, 108

Men’s Intermediate Advanced
First Place – Ryan Smithart, 88

Men’s Intermediate Entry
First Place – Aaron Vammer, 95
Second Place – Brad Burch, 90
Third Place – Mitchell Robinson, 74

High Female Overall
Morgan Craft, 110

Women’s Senior Varsity
First Place – Nicole Ellis, 45

Women’s Junior Varsity
First Place – Olivia Ornouski, 84
Second Place – Jamie Ommert-English, 66

Women’s Intermediate Entry
First Place – Kaycee McNutt, 39

Approximately 200 junior shooters are participating in the International Skeet, Double Trap and Trap events at the 2009 Shotgun JOs. Juniors qualified for the event by winning their State Junior Olympic Championships, or by shooting a qualifying score. Competition will continue on Wednesday, July 29 with the Double Trap match and final and the Trap event will kick off on Thursday, July 30 with competition concluding on Saturday, August 1.

Complete results from the 2009 Shotgun National Junior Olympic Championships can be found at the conclusion of the match each day by visiting the Match Results page of USA Shooting's website.

Winchester Ammunition is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team:
Winchester® Ammunition has been the exclusive ammunition sponsor and supplier of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team since 1999. Members of the 2008 shotgun team brought home four medals from Beijing using Winchester AA International Target loads. Winchester is an industry leader in advancing and supporting conservation, hunter education and our country's proud shooting sports heritage. For more information about Winchester and its complete line of products, visit www.winchester.com.

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