GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – The Concordia University trap and skeet team completed its fall season in style, placing second at the Association of College Unions International Annual Clay Targets Tournament, held Nov. 5-6 at Heartland Public Shooting Park in Grand Island, Neb. The Bulldogs turned in a team total of 1,345, placing them behind only Midland (1,401) among the 14 teams competing in the event.
Once again it was sophomore Erin Lokke, who starred for head coach Joel Helmer’s squad. Lokke placed high overall in the women’s field. Only four of the 97 male shooters outgunned Lokke.
“This tournament gives us a lot of momentum going into the spring season and the national tournament in late March,” Helmer said. “This young team of mainly freshman and sophomores is making Concordia a nationally competitive program. They are a great group of young men and women who work tremendously hard on their shooting and have very high aspirations.”
Lokke has been a top performer ever since arriving at Concordia last fall. She turned in scores of 98/100 in American skeet, 92/100 in American trap and 89/100 in sporting clays. She won both the women’s skeet and sporting clays. Following closely behind Lokke were Riley Meyer (277) and Wyatt Pursell (277), who placed sixth and seventh, respectively, on the men’s side. Pursell placed third in both sporting clays (88/100) and skeet (98/100). Meyer finished third in trap (99/100).
Other highlights included Katarina Borg’s third-place claim in sporting clays (83/100) and Daniel Cahoon’s career best outing that featured an 86/100 in sporting clays (tied for fifth). Jordan Kerns-Schneider also turned in the fourth best score in women’s skeet (92/100 while hitting 50-straight targets at one point.
Behind, Lokke, Meyer and Pursell, the rest of the team’s top five included Mark Bender (260) and Ethan Cradick (252). A total of 20 Bulldogs took part in the tournament.
Top five Bulldogs at ACUI Tournament
Name – AS – AT – SC – Total
Erin Lokke – 98 – 92 – 89 – 279
Riley Meyer – 95 – 99 – 83 – 277
Wyatt Pursell – 98 – 91 – 88 – 277
Mark Bender – 89 – 91 – 80 – 260
Ethan Cradick – 89 – 88 – 75 – 252
Other Concordia competitors
Seth Willard – 251
Dustin Renfro – 250
Kendall Schick – 245
Katarina Borg – 243
Daniel Cahoon – 238
Lauren Webb – 235
Tanner Sovereign – 230
Jordan Kerns-Schneider – 227
Brook Wagner – 227
Mitchell Charron – 225
Philip Oehlrich – 222
Sabra Moore – 212
Tia Pawloski – 196
Laura Welk – 195
Autumn Wildfeuer – 152