NORTH PLATTE, Neb. – With regional bragging rights on the line, the Concordia University Shooting Sports team went toe-to-toe with its closest rivals this past weekend. When the smoke cleared, the Bulldogs placed third high overall out of 12 teams at the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships held at Lincoln County Wildlife Gun Club in North Platte, Neb., Sept. 23-25. After adding up the top five Concordia scores in each discipline, the Bulldogs knocked out 1,846 targets towards the high overall (HOA) leaderboard.
Among the individual highlights, Angeline Wolfert emerged as the top HOA female freshman at the event. Meanwhile, Breyer Meeks and Claire Kee represented Concordia with all-conference awards. Head Coach Dylan Owens and his team had hoped to place top two in the conference, but there were many positives to build upon.
“I think we’re coming together as a team,” Owens said. “They’re supporting each other and building each other up. I’m seeing more leadership from certain athletes. They are realizing it’s not just my job to lead them. It’s in their hands and they have to do the work. That was great to see this past weekend. I really want to thank the parents of our athletes. They help us out with food so much and are really active within the team. It’s really nice to have that support system.”
The Bulldogs wound up placing just behind Fort Hays State University (1,879) and Midland (1,850) in the race for the conference championship. Concordia won the Prairie Circuit title as recently as 2020 and then placed second in 2021. The Bulldogs also had back-to-back individual conference champions courtesy of Erin Lokke in 2020 and Wyatt Hambly in 2021.
This time around, Concordia was led in the HOA department by the junior Meeks, a native of Filer, Idaho. He shot 369 HOA and placed seventh out of the entire field at the championship meet. Next in line for the Bulldogs were Tanner Muff (359), Joe Blevins (357), Kee (353), Wayne Moore (350) and Jack Nelson (350). Moore busted all 100 targets in trap. He wound up losing the shootout for top honors in the event.
Across disciplines, Concordia shot 473 in skeet, 488 in trap, 438 in sporting clays and 447 in doubles trap. Owens remarked that sporting clays will be an emphasis in practice this week. The top Bulldogs by discipline were Andrew Fynaardt in skeet (96), Moore in trap (100), Muff in sporting clays (91) and Blevins in doubles trap (91). Emma Singer tied for first among females in doubles trap (lost the shootout) with a total of 89.
Concordia cleaned up with three of the five award winners for all-conference female freshmen. Those honors were collected by Wolfert, Katie Welker and Kaylee Hinton. Muff also took home all-conference freshman accolades on the men’s side. Both Muff and Welker shot perfect trap scores a week earlier at the Warrior Open. Meanwhile, Wolfert ended up as the team’s seventh overall shooter at the Prairie Circuit Championships with an HOA total of 349.
Added Owens, “Something I’ve been working with the team on is that missing a target is okay. Then the focus has to be on the next target. Anybody could have made up four targets on our team. When you look at it as a more of a team sport, you realize that every single target makes a difference.”
Concordia Prairie Circuit Award Winners
· All-Conference Male: Breyer Meeks
· All-Conference Female: Claire Kee
· All-Conference Freshmen: Tanner Muff, Angeline Wolfert, Katie Welker, Kaylee Hinton
· HOA Freshman Female: Angeline Wolfert
The Bulldogs now look forward to hosting the seventh annual Concordia Bulldog Sporting Invitational at Oak Creek Sporting Club in Brainard, Neb., on Saturday and Sunday. Owens expects roughly 150 collegiate/high school competitors to be on hand. Rivals Fort Hays State and Midland will be part of the field of teams.