Waterloo, IA – The Indian Hills Sports Shooting team came home with its best finish at the State Championships in program history, placing fourth overall at the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) / Scholastic Clay Target (SCTP) shoot at the New Pioneer Gun Club.

As a team, the Warriors connected on 1,243/1,450 targets to place fourth overall out of 11 programs at the championship, the Warriors best postseason finish at the State Championship since its inception in 2017. Indian Hills took third overall in the Super Sporting Clays discipline and finished fourth in both the Skeet and Sporting Clays shoots while taking seventh overall in Trap.

The Warriors saw three top-12 finishes in the men's High Overall (HOA) category with Carson Abrams (Oskaloosa, IA/Pella Christian) leading the way with 294/350 targets to place 10^th overall. Mason Herrington (Eldridge, IA/North Scott) joined Abrams with 294 targets to place 11^th followed by Zane Kirubakaran (Ottumwa, IA/Ottumwa) who placed 12^th overall with 293 targets.

On the ladies side, Haley Byrge (Chilton, WI/Chilton) posted an impressive performance for the Warriors placing eighth overall with 252 total targets on the weekend.

"We had a fairly strong showing to start the day on Saturday," stated head coach Jake Stalzer. "Especially proud and happy for Zane as this was his first year ever shooting sporting clays and to lead our team at the state tournament is remarkable."

Kirubakaran posted 80 targets in the Sporting Clays discipline on the opening day Saturday to place eighth overall as the Warriors totaled 228/300 team targets. Abrams, Herrington, and Cooper Clark (Story City, IA/Roland Story) each added 74 targets to score for the Warriors.

"Saturday afternoon's trap however was pretty difficult - we just did not make the proper adjustments and lost some mental focus unfortunately," Stalzer added. "Zane once again had a strong showing in trap leading our team so he had a phenomenal opening day of state."

Kirubakaran once again paced the Warriors with 93 Trap targets followed by 90 targets from Byrge for a strong showing from the freshman duo. Abrams and Herrington continued to shoot on target, connecting on 89 targets for the Warriors. Tanner Belloma (Centerville, IA/Centerville) added 89 targets as well, including a 25 in the third round.

Byrge finished 11^th overall out of 36 athletes in the ladies Trap division while the freshman placed seventh overall out of 20 athletes in the ladies Sporting Clays division.

"Sunday we regrouped and shot well in skeet first thing in the morning," Stalzer added. "I was proud of the effort and how the team did not give up after a rough Saturday. Mason led us in skeet and similar to Zane on day one, Mason had not shot much skeet before coming to Hills. To go out and lead the team and almost earn a podium spot is quite the feat. We wrapped up the state tournament with super sporting Sunday afternoon and the team results were all very close. We were lucky enough to earn a podium spot and some hardware finishing third in the super sporting discipline and the team was ecstatic."

Indian Hills' 452/500 Skeet targets was good enough for fourth overall, led by Herrington's 95 targets to place seventh overall. Abrams added a second round 25 to connect on 91 Skeet targets overall, followed by 89 targets from both Clark and Aidan Eischen (New Sharon, IA/North Mahaska). Kyler Schwartz rounded out the team scoring with 88 targets.

In the final discipline, Abrams led the way for the Warriors in Super Sporting Clays with 40/50 targets followed by 37 from Schwartz and 36 apiece from Wyatt Bible (Ankeny, IA/Ankeny), Herrington, and Alex Shelton (Chariton, IA/Chariton).

Abrams' 40 targets was good enough for sixth overall out of 56 male athletes and was just one target shy of a shoot-off for third-place.

The Warriors wrap up their fall season with one of its strongest showings in recent history.

Indian Hills will return to action in the spring season, looking ahead towards the ACUI/SCTP Collegiate Clay Target Championships in San Antonio, TX in March.

Looking for Indian Hills Athletics information straight to your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter and mobile alerts to receive news, scores, highlights, and more in real-time: INDIAN HILLS ATHLETICS NEWSLETTER