Full Results | Concordia Results (PDF)
BRAINARD, Neb. – More than 100 competitors descended upon Oak Creek Sporting Club in Brainard, Neb., for the eighth annual Concordia Bulldog Sporting Invitational held the weekend of Oct. 21-22. The Concordia University Shooting Sports team placed second high overall out of nine teams in the field. In a twist from many other collegiate shooting events, the Concordia Invite tested all athletes with 200 sporting clay and 100 super sporting clay targets. Two Bulldogs came away with awards as Sam Blevins took third among males in sporting and Claire Kee earned second in sporting and third in super sporting among females.
Towards the HOA leaderboard, Head Coach Dylan Owens’ squad busted 1,295 targets. Fort Hays State University (Kan.) won the team championship with a total of 1,361.
“We came out Saturday really strong,” Owens said. “Jack (Nelson) shot a 91 in super, Sam shot a 92 in super and they come around in the red course in the afternoon and Jack ran a 95 and Sam ran a 91. We were sitting in contention after the first day. Claire shot great all weekend and Devin (Harris) put up some good scores. We were looking pretty good, but the green course was definitely the toughest. If you look at overall scores, every team did worse on the green course on Sunday morning. We’ve got some areas we know we can work on. We’ll start getting ready for our next competition in Waco.”
Blevins posted scores of 91 and 86 in the process of taking third in sporting. Meanwhile, Kee shot 170/200 in sporting and 86 in super while coming away with a pair of awards. The La Grange, Ky., native Blevins was also Concordia’s top overall shooter at 269/300. That total placed him fourth HOA among males. In terms of HOA, the next Bulldogs in line were Nelson (264) and Harris (260). They placed sixth and 11th, respectively, on the overall leaderboard.
On the sporting clays red course, six Concordia athletes shot at least a 90: Nelson (95), Kee (93), Brennen Stones (92), Blevins (91), Harris (91) and Breyer Meeks (90). Kee, Harris and Stones were the Bulldogs’ fourth and fifth HOA shooters with totals of 256 for Kee and 246 for both Meeks and Stones. Kee emerged as the second best HOA female. Concordia was represented by 25 competitors at its home shoot.
From a team perspective, Concordia beat out nearby rivals on the HOA leaderboard in Midland (1,288), Hastings (1,284) and Doane (1,221). The Bulldogs have placed third or better at five of their six events this season. In their two previous outings, Concordia finished third at the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships and third at the Hastings Bronco Invitational.
Finally, Owens commended Oak Creek Sporting Club owner Terry Kriz and the local gun club for helping host the event. Parents of Concordia athletes provided food throughout the invitational and Bulldog head women’s basketball coach Drew Olson supplied a Sunday morning devotional. The women’s basketball team came out to show its support on the second day of the event.
The final event of the fall portion of the 2023-24 schedule will be the Waco Trap & Skeet Collegiate Invitational in Waco, Texas, Nov. 4-5. This will be the program’s first ever appearance at this particular shoot.