Midland Claims Runner-Up at Warrior Invite
LINCOLN, Neb. – The Midland University shotgun sports team took second place at the Warrior Invite over the weekend at the Lincoln Trap & Skeet Club. Fort Hays State edged the Warriors in a team shoot-off for the High Overall (HOA) team title.
Three Warriors placed in the top 10 in the HOA individual competition. Jake Ruehl finished third with a 283, while teammate Andy Grell was fourth, also with a 283. Michael Martinez placed seventh with a 282.
Two Warrior women also finished in the top 10 of the Ladies HOA. Kimber Beevers was fifth with a 269, and Alexandra Klocek was seventh at 268.
In Skeet HOA, Midland finished third with a score of 490. Devin Huguenot, Jackson Zoller, Gil Palmer, Ruehl, and Chase Carrere all shot 98s.
The Warriors won the Trap HOA competition with a 498. Huguenot, Audric Scheidel, and Hunter Martin each recorded perfect 100s.
Midland was runner-up in the Sporting Clays HOA, tallying a score of 435. Grell and Ruehl both recorded 99s.
Head coach Jacob McThenia praised his team's effort.
"This group of shooters really showed grit and determination out on the line this weekend," McThenia said. "Coming back from six targets down is no easy task, but this group answered and got us into a team HOA shoot-off, which is the first time we have had to do this at our home shoot. There were birds that we could've picked up in skeet or sporting that could've put us ahead, but that's the nature of this sport — one more target.
"We did have quite a few solid individual performances as well, which I was super proud of."
Scheidel won trap with a 100 plus 275 in the shoot-off.
The team HOA shoot-off consisted of the top five scorers from each team in trap, skeet, and sporting clays. Each of the sporting clays shooters fired three pairs from a station. Then the top five trap scorers each shot one round of 25. After that, the top five skeet shooters fired doubles from stations 3, 4, 5, 4, and 3.
Once all scores were totaled, Midland and Fort Hays tied again, forcing another round in sporting clays. Each shooter fired three more pairs, and Fort Hays ultimately took the HOA team title by two targets.
"Although we came up short, this is the type of event where you want to be in with worthy opponents," McThenia said. "Us and Fort Hays have always slugged it out every year, and it gives us motivation going into the conference championship this weekend."
Midland will return to action Sept. 26-28 at the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships in Grand Island, Neb.