RESULTS: Concordia only (PDF) | Full Results
LINCOLN, Neb. – Following two idle weekends, Concordia University, Nebraska Shooting Sports returned to action for its final outing of the fall. The Bulldogs emerged from the Southeast Community College Bobcat Invitational (Oct. 24-25) with a team HOA (high overall) placement of second while spurred by individual HOA champions in graduate students Devin Harris and Katie Welker-Luetje. Each competitor took aim at 300 targets over the disciplines of trap, skeet and sporting clays at Lincoln Trap & Skeet Club in Lincoln, Neb.
Only Fort Hays State University (1,387) managed to outgun Concordia and its team total of 1,376. Head Coach Dylan Owens’ Bulldogs also placed second in sporting clays and in trap. Owens saw growth throughout the five events on the fall semester schedule.
“It's been really enjoyable watching everyone compete and grow,” Owens said. “I've talked with some former team members about how, when they were younger, they relied on the seniors. I think we saw some of that last year, too, with the younger athletes leaning on the older ones. Now, we're seeing the responsibility spread across the team. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors are all shooting well and pushing one another. If we're going to have a chance at nationals, everybody is going to have to work hard. We can't rely on just five or six people to do everything. Based on what I've seen this fall, I'm really hopeful about where we're headed.”
In the team and individual scoring, host Southeast Community College separated athletes and teams by four-year or two-year college distinction. As four-year HOA champions, Harris busted 280/300 targets while Welker-Luetje shot 269. On the women’s side, the Hamill, S.D., native Welker-Luetje won trap (98) and placed second in sporting (80) while sophomore Delayna Rife took second in skeet (94). On the men’s side, sophomore Jerry Kaibel won sporting (88) and senior Lane Schoff was the trap runner up (96).
In winning the HOA championship, Harris shot 95 in trap, 98 in skeet and 87 in sporting. In addition to shooting 98 in trap and 80 in sporting, Welker-Luetje cracked 91 targets in skeet. Also a graduate assistant for Owens, Welker-Luetje won women’s HOA championships at four of the five events this fall, including the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships.
From a team perspective, the Bulldogs placed second to Fort Hays State in both sporting (421-417) and trap (479-478) at the SCC Invite. As Owens noted, dropped targets in the latter stages of individual rounds prevented Concordia from winning in trap. In skeet, the Bulldogs (481) were just one target behind the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for second place.
At the top of the team’s HOA lineup, junior Clayton Gellerman made a run at Harris for the overall championship. Gellerman finished second among Bulldogs at 276/300. Harris and Gellerman were followed by Schoff (271), Welker-Luetje (269) and Jaggar Luejte (266) in the team’s top five. The six-through-10 Concordia competitors were Kaibel (264), Rife (262), freshman Jaydyn Backman (253), sophomore Cody Carlson (251) and senior Colby Gaines (251). There were 19 total athletes that represented Concordia at the SCC Invite. A December graduate, Gaines (Tulsa, Okla.) competed in his final event as a Bulldog.
Second place finishes at back-to-back events to end the fall will give Owens’ program momentum heading into next semester.
Said Owens, “Our consistency in skeet and sporting clays has gotten much better. I was already fairly comfortable with where we were in trap, but now that's an area where we really need to step things up.” Added Owens of the format involving fewer targets than previous competitions, “I really appreciated that aspect of it, and I think a lot of the team did, too. It took us back to the normal format of our competitions, with 300 targets. It wasn't as busy, so the team had more time to spend together. Instead of splitting up into different groups and only seeing each other in the mornings or possibly at lunch, we all shot sporting clays together and skeet together. It was much more enjoyable.”
The season will resume in the spring semester, beginning with the University of Nebraska Cornhusker Invite on Feb. 20-21, 2027. The Bulldogs will also host their own competition, the Concordia Bulldog Sporting Invitational, at Oak Creek Sporting Club on Feb. 26-27. View the complete schedule HERE.