Hambly tops Bulldogs on home turf at Oak Creek

By Jacob Knabel on Oct. 8, 2018 in Shooting Sports

BRAINARD, Neb. – The Concordia University shooting program welcomed competitors from 10 other institutions to its home course while playing the role of host for the first time this season. Among the 11 squads at the Bulldog Sporting Classic this past weekend (Oct. 6-7), the Bulldogs placed seventh high overall by cracking 1,251 targets.

Shooters from top programs from around the nation such as Fort Hays State University (Kan.) convened on the event that took place at Oak Creek Sporting Club in Brainard, Neb. There 160 shooters in attendance.

“I think it ran really smooth,” said first-year head coach Scott Moniot. “For a sporting clay-super sporting tournament, we had all positive comments. Some of the coaches from the other colleges said, don’t change a thing. They loved it. It ran really well for the first time hosting. It went off without a major hiccup.

“We performed pretty well. Some of our younger kids are starting to settle in. Almost everybody’s scores have been consistently marching upwards.”

Moniot knew he would have to exercise some degree of patience considering the wealth of freshmen on the roster. The Bulldogs were without two of their top shooters with Erin Lokke and Emma Van Donselaar off shooting at the USA national championships in Colorado Springs, Colo. At the Bulldog Sporting Classic, three of the top five and six of the top 10 spots for Concordia, in terms of high overall, were held down by freshmen. Rookie Wyatt Hambly hit 254 targets to pace the Bulldogs.

The rest of the team’s top five high overall were sophomores Mackenze Origer (248) and Rebecca Tierney (244) and freshmen Emily Rasmussen (243) and Colten Uitermarkt (240). Concordia unleashed 29 competitors into the field that was bested by Austin Svoboda (282) of Fort Hays State. Moniot continues to put his team up against the top collegiate shooting programs in the country. The Bulldog Sporting Classic also included Nebraska schools such as Doane, Hastings and Midland.

“You have to keep things in perspective with a young team,” Moniot said. “You’re going up against kids for Fort Hays State that are fifth or sixth-year college students. They’ve been at this game longer than our freshmen. They are some of the very best in the whole nation. It gives them a really good indication of where they need to go if they want to climb to the top. We’re getting better. I think it was a solid performance. I don’t think we had as much nerves.”

Many of Concordia’s top performances came in super sporting with six individuals busting at least 87 targets in the event: Origer (91), Hambly (90), Rasmussen (89), freshmen Russell Malterud (88) and Byron Baca (87) and junior Sabra Moore (87). Uitermarkt hit 87 targets in sporting clay (red).

At the conclusion of the tournament, Moniot handed out awards and ammo to the top male and female shooters in each event, both collegiate and high school, to the high overall winners and to the top three teams at the event (Fort Hays State, Midland and Oklahoma State University). President Brian Friedrich opened the tournament on Saturday morning with a prayer.

Next up is this weekend (Oct. 13-14)’s Scholastic Clay Target Program Regional Championship in Grand Island, Neb.