Ackley, Iowa -- The Indian Hills sports shooting team concluded its spring schedule, enduring what coach Jake Stalzer said were "miserable conditions" at the Iowa State Collegiate event at the Stockdale Gun Club on Saturday. The IHCC squad finished in 10th place, led by Karson Gonnerman's score of 84.
"It was definitely not the way we wanted to finish out the regular trap season," Stalzer said, "but I am still proud of every single one of my student-athletes for sticking it out in those conditions. I believe we could have placed much higher if the weather was even slightly better, but we just didn't handle the adversity as well as some of the other teams did. It was supposed to be a 200 target event, but they called the second 100 off due to freezing temperatures, strong wind gusts and precipitation that eventually turned to snow.
Gonnerman had the best score for Indian Hills with his 84. Cole Becker was next with an 81, followed by Jason Herr with a 77, 75 for Cole Cornforth and 72 for John Williams.
Stalzer said, "It was an off day for a few of our stronger shooters such as Harley Saulmon and Shayla Rotenburger, who both finished with 65s. The nice thing is they have been strong for us all year and will be returning as sophomores in the fall." He added, "It was great to see three out of my four sophomores -- Karson, Jason and Cole -- have scores that counted toward our team score. Karson was our top male shooter in all our spring competitions and it was nice to see him finish out his career strong. He was the first recruit I signed when we started the program at Indian Hills. That group of sophomores, including Caleb Langgin, are the first ones I had the privilege to coach their entire Indian Hills academic/athletic careers, and they will always be a special group to me."
Indian Hills finished the 2018-19 conference season in 3rd place in the East Division with a 3-3 record and 2824 points. They trailed Hawkeye CC and Southeastern CC, who tied for first place at 5-1, and were ahead of the Corridor Clay Crushers and Northeast Iowa CC. Iowa Central won the West Division title with a perfect 6-0 mark and was first at the state meet.
With the main season now wrapped up, Indian Hills will have a handful of student-athletes participating in the Iowa SCTP State Sporting Clays in June at the Oskaloosa Izaak Walton League, and the State Skeet Championships at the New Pioneer Gun Club in Waukee later in June.
Iowa State Collegiate Meet
Indian Hills scores:
Karson Gonnerman - 84
Cole Becker - 81
Jason Herr - 77
Cole Cornforth - 75
John Williams - 72