April 6th, 2024 Match Results
Utah weather in April is always unpredictable. Wednesday, we had beautiful clear skies with temps in the lower 70’s. Match day on Saturday brought wind, cold, storm warnings, snow with white out conditions and temps in the mid 30’s. What a crazy day it was. The match started with cold overcast skies; the sun came out for a little to tease us, but it was short lived as the wind and rain came in right before the snow came down. Lucky enough, we got almost all 8 stages completed before the white out conditions. One thing is always certain though, and that’s Utah shooters are the best there is and we had 66 die hard competitors show up for a challenging match!
With the skill level in our club, you never know who is going to take the top spot. Every month it is a battle to watch! This month we had 16 impacts separating the top 25 shooters which also included shooters from every division!
This month’s overall and Open Division winner is Paul Dallin, scoring an incredible 835.4 points with a perfect NRL22 stage clean. Right behind him by 1 impact is Chris Baxter, who scored an amazing 822.8 points. Breathing down Chris’s neck is Alberto Perez, only 2.5 seconds behind Chris with a score of 820.3! Top 3 shooters separated by one impact is amazing!
Carey Palmer didn’t care for the hanging tube targets at all and he let me know it, but that didn’t stop him from scoring 770.6 points, placing 7th overall and 1st place in Old Guns. Owen Fjeldsted was 4 impacts behind him with a score of 730.5 for second place silver. Scott Robertson takes home 3rd place bronze with 570.0.
We have two Young Guns who have been battling it out all season long, both placed in the top 20 this month which is amazing with the caliber of shooters in our club. This month it was Kaylyn Kingston who takes 1st place gold and 15th overall, scoring 732.4 points. 2 impacts behind and 17th overall is Easton Baugh, scoring 711.0 for 2nd place silver. Titus Baugh is showing his potential earning 3rd place bronze with 580.0 points.
Stephanie Baxter missed last month’s match due to illness, but she returned this month healthy and strong, earning 701.1 points for 1st place bronze in Ladies Division. Kimberly Garrett was not making it easy on her at all and gets 2nd place silver, just 2 impacts behind with 681.7 points. Leah McBride continues to improve every match and earns 3rd place bronze with 420.1 points.
Jeromy Camp barely misses getting into the top 20, but still gets 1st place gold in Base Division with 692.5 points. Derek Olson and Colton Kalmar battled each other all match, but Derek is 2 seconds faster to earn 2nd place silver with 630.2 points! Colton Kalmar picks up 3rd place bronze with 630.0 points.
Air Rifles can be a handful in challenging weather conditions, but Spencer Bangerter scored an amazing 600.7 points to take 1st place gold. Rick Plumb was only 2 impacts ahead of Matt Stajduhar to take home 2nd place silver, giving bronze to Matt. Rick scored 520.0 points to Matt’s 500.0.
Breakdown for this month is 66 shooters, 8 of them first time competitors! Division breakdown: 6 Air Rifle, 10 Base, 3 Ladies, 7 Old Guns, 32 Open and 8 Young Guns.
This was the last match of the 2023-2024 Big Salty season! Congratulations to all the competitors who braved the weather to make it such an amazing match. Our match next month will be our season finale celebration match and will kick off the 2024-2025 season! Thank you everyone for your continued support of our club, without you we couldn’t be the best club in the nation.
Link to all scores: https://docs.google.com/…/1RDKMGkuRBp337kERLvIJ…/edit…