Full Results | Concordia Only (PDF)
LINCOLN, Neb. – Before heading off to nationals one final time in her collegiate career, senior Katie Welker earned another invite championship. Over the weekend (March 7-8) at the Iowa Western Community College Invitational, Welker won high overall (HOA) and doubles trap titles on the women’s side. She helped lead Concordia University, Nebraska Shooting Sports to a third-place team finish among the six teams in the field. The event took place at Lincoln Trap & Skeet Club in Lincoln, Neb., where athletes shot 200 doubles trap and 200 doubles skeet targets.
The HOA team total for Head Coach Dylan Owens’ Bulldogs came in at 1,830, placing them behind host Iowa Western (1,907) and Fort Hays State University (1,889). The outing marked the eighth event of the 2025-26 season for Concordia.
“The beauty of this shoot paired with our shoot the week before is that you get 300 sporting targets and then you get 200 doubles skeet and 200 doubles trap right before nationals,” Owens said. “We used to only shoot doubles skeet and doubles trap maybe once in the fall. There were some individuals who shot really good single rounds. It gives me a lot of positive feelings and hope going into this week of practice and nationals … kudos to Katie. She had a 98 her second 100 of doubles trap. She was really on her game. We’ve been working on some technique stuff to really sharpen it just a little more, and it showed this weekend.”
A senior from Hamill, S.D., Welker has shined throughout the ’25-26 campaign. At Lincoln Trap & Skeet, Welker busted 192 targets in doubles trap and 183 in doubles skeet for a total of 375. The result was Welker’s third HOA title of the season. In the latest outing, Welker shot the Bulldogs’ highest score in doubles trap and tied for the team’s fourth best score in doubles skeet.
Concordia’s other contributors to the team score in doubles trap were senior Devin Harris (182), grad student Sam Blevins (180), senior Kaylee Hinton (178) and freshman Brianna Helsene (167). Meanwhile, the top marksmanship in doubles skeet was displayed by senior Cael Washburn (191), Blevins (187), Harris (187) and freshman Delayna Rife (183).
Owens has been pleased with the progress of the freshmen. Said Owens, “Brianna really did well. She grinded in doubles trap. She felt like she could have been even better. Delayna came into college as mostly a trap shooter. She’s spent a lot of time developing her skills. In a year, her sporting clays are so much better than before she started here – and then to be able to pull off a good doubles skeet score consistently is nice to see.”
Harris followed Welker from an HOA perspective with a 369 total. The rest of the team’s top five included Blevins (367), Hinton (357) and Rife (343). Sixteen Bulldogs were part of the field of 73 shooters at the Iowa Western Invite.
The first spring semester action came a week earlier when Concordia placed seventh at the 10th annual Concordia Bulldog Sporting Invitational. The Bulldogs will spend the week of spring break fine-tuning their skills in advance of the national championships.
The 2026 ACUI Collegiate Clay Target National Championships are up next. The event will run March 16-21 at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas. At last season’s national championships, the Bulldogs placed seventh HOA in the Division 2 breakdown. The national championships test athletes in six different shooting disciplines. For details on the event can be found HERE.
Added Owens, “We’re taking 17 to nationals. We’re really excited. We get to fly down this year. We’re hoping for really nice weather.”