Boy, has shooting exploded across the Midwest and Illinois over the past month. I am going to try to cover the highlights but I am sure I will miss someone. If I do, please contact me and I will mention you in future columns. First, read the shoot reports of other State shoots because Illinois shooters have been doing well. The week before the Illinois State Shoot, the US Open took place at Sparta and a couple of notable things happened. Tim Lewis shot his first 100 straight and Mike Jordan broke 200 straight in the Singles Championship. Good shooting both of you. I wanted to mention Mike because he is a hero of mine and he never ceases to amaze me over his shooting ability through the years. It is a treat to watch him.
Now I want to talk about the Illinois State Shoot. It went from warm to hot and the wind blew from every direction except up or down. Through it all great scores were shot and a good time was had by all. First of all, I want to thank the Mohr family and The Illinois Board of Directors for putting on a great shoot. The shoot went well and great scores popped up like mushrooms. AIM was shot first and we had over 300 shooters toe the line. There was a lot of impressive shooting and it is obvious to me our future is in good hands. The winners were: Steve Margherio won both the Singles and Doubles and Wyatt Sibley won the Handicap. I am looking forward to watching these guys in the years ahead.
Now I want to talk about the regular shoot. Megan Byrns and Zac Painter shot their first 100 straights in Singles and Logan Applegate shot his first 100 in Doubles. Ryan Lovelace, Ty Leach and Drake Reynolds all reached the 27 yard line for the first time. All of these shooters are kids! Wow, I am in awe of our younger shooters. The winners of the Championship events are as follows: Mike Hathaway won the Singles, Terron Williams won the Doubles, Gavin Rynders won the Handicap and Landon Sievers won the HOA and HAA. I am really happy for Mike because he finally broke through and won a big one.
You can tell that shooting is back on in Illinois by the number of shooters that have reached milestones this past month. I'll do Singles first; Gallen Tully, James Martin, William Nash and Jack Vick all have shot 25,000, Mark Elliott has shot 50,000, Mike Miller has shot 75,000, Marvin Kuebler has shot 100,000 and Mike Westjohn has shot 200,000. Handicap next: Douglas Porter, Steve Carver and Ross Walch have shot 25,000, John White, Lynn Gibson and Mike Miller have shot 75,000 and Richard Haltek has shot 100,000. Lastly Doubles: David Peace has shot 25,000 and Danial Meinecke has shot 400,000! Wow, that's a lot of of shooting. Good job everyone. I also want to give a special mention to Mike Westjohn. I had the honor of presenting him with a pin and certificate at our annual meeting for his 500,000 combined targets. Mike, at our meeting, you said you were told to ride this horse for as long as you could. Let me tell you, this accomplishment shows you are one hell of a fine rider!
Finally, I want to invite any shooters who missed our Shoot this year to please come back. We missed you and would love to see you next year.
It's time for me to shoot so until next time, shoot well.
Bill Duncan, ATA Delegate