RESULTS: Concordia only (PDF) | Full Results
HAYS, Kan. – After three official team practices, Concordia University, Nebraska Shooting Sports dove into the 2026-27 season this past weekend (Aug. 29-30) at the Fort Hays State Fall Intercollegiate Shoot. A group of 19 Bulldogs tested their skills in five different disciplines and helped pave the way for a fourth-place high overall (HOA) finish out of 11 teams. The two-day competition took place at Hays City Sportsmen's Club in Hays, Kan., before shifting to LaSada Lodge in Russell, Kan. The temperatures reached triple digits, making for stifling conditions.
Head Coach Dylan Owens’ Bulldogs cracked 1,980 targets towards the team leaderboard. The top three teams HOA were Fort Hays State University (2,098), Iowa Western Community College (2,081) and William Penn University (2,073). Concordia sophomore Delayna Rife started strong while leading the team with a 97 in trap.
“I would say it was one of our most consistently good weekends,” Owens said. “Maybe they weren't our highest scores, but they were good scores. You go to doubles trap, which is something we normally struggle with a little more, and we had two people in the 90s and four people in the mid-to-high 80s. I'm plenty happy with that, especially for the first event of the year. We practiced doubles trap on Thursday (last week), and that's the only day we practiced it, so to come out and have those kinds of scores was really encouraging.
“The competition was really tough. Fort Hays shot well. William Penn shot well. Iowa Western shot really well. I'm happy with what we were able to do with only one week of practice. I'm excited for the rest of the season.”
Now the program’s graduate assistant coach, Katie Welker-Luetje picked up where she left off as a senior in 2025-26 when she won national titles in HOA and open doubles trap. At the season opening Fort Hays State Shoot, Welker-Luetje took first place in sporting clays with a score of 93. The Hamill, S.D., native also placed second HOA among women while leading Concordia with a total of 406 (out of 450 targets). Also a grad student, returning All-American Devin Harris cracked 400 (404) and sophomore Jerry Kaibel (397) pushed that mark. The top individual score in the entire field was a 424 by a William Penn competitor.
A native of Foley, Minn., Rife may have landed in the women’s top three HOA, however, she did not finish sporting due to the heat. Only two women in the field shot higher scores than Rife in trap. She also turned in a 91 in doubles trap and notched a solid 42 (out of 50) in doubles skeet. Rife stood atop the women’s leaderboard in doubles trap until the final flight when two William Penn athletes both shot 93. As Owens side of Rife, “She had a really, really great weekend.”
While Welker-Luetje led the way in sporting and Rife did the same in trap, the Bulldogs were paced by Kaibel in super sporting (90), Harris in doubles trap (93) and Harris and Welker-Luetje in doubles skeet (45). Clayton Gellerman (44) followed close behind in doubles skeet, an event that saw eight Bulldogs shoot 42 or better.
“We also had a lot of the now-sophomores put up some great team scores and really help us out,” Owens said. “In our practice planning, we knew we wanted to get people some experience in doubles skeet, especially those who hadn't shot a lot of it. But it wasn't going to be a heavy focus because it's only 50 targets compared to 200 in the other events. I'm really proud of how that ended up.”
Owens noted that sporting and sporting clays were two of the team’s most impressive disciplines. In sporting, Welker was followed by Lane Schoff (92) and Cody Carlson (88). In super sporting, Kaibel, Welker-Luetje (88) and Carlson (85) set the standard. On the team’s HOA leaderboard, Schoff (389), Carlson (384) and Luetje (384) rounded out the top five.
The Bulldogs will have the next couple of weekends off from competition before competing in the Midland Warrior Open on Sept. 19-20. That event will be held at Lincoln Trap & Skeet Club in Lincoln, Neb. Concordia placed seventh overall at the 2025 Midland Open.
Said Owens, “What's nice is that this is the first time since, I believe, my first year that we're actually going to have a break for a couple of weeks until Midland's shoot. We'll actually get to do some training, practicing and prep work instead of just getting ready for the next shoot, which can feel a little rushed sometimes. It'll be nice to develop the freshmen a little bit more, develop the sophomores and refine our practicing before the next shoot. We'll also work out some squad assignments. For this first event, squad assignments were a little bit of a guess because we only had one week of practice.”