Waukee, IA – The Indian Hills Shotgun Sports team opened up the 2024 Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) / Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) State Championship with an impressive third-place showing in both trap and sporting clays on Saturday.
The Warriors set a new school record with a team score of 484 trap targets behind a series of season and personal-best performances. Indian Hills saw five individuals connect on at least 95 targets to lead the Warriors to their best finish in trap at the state tournament in program history.
Indian Hills' third-place showing in sporting clays is also the highest finish at the state shoot in school history as Indian Hills connected on 252 targets, the most at the ICCAC/SCTP tournament in program history and an increase of 24 targets from last year's outing.
The Warriors opened the day as the first team out on the trap range as all 19 members of the squad took the stand. The Warriors were led by Aidan Eischen (New Sharon, IA/North Mahaska) and Seth Bauman (Grinnell, IA/Grinnell) who each tallied 98 birds on the day. The 98 targets are a season-high for Bauman while Eischen, who connected on 88 targets at the state shoot as a freshman, tied a season-best performance on Saturday.
Freshman Riley Katzartones (Floris, IA/Davis County) followed suit with a lifetime-best performance of 97 targets to score in the top-five for the Warriors. The Warriors' top three, Eischen, Bauman, and Katzartones all ran 75 consecutive targets on the day.
Sophomore Haley Byrge (Chilton, WI/Chilton) shot her way into a fourth-place shoot-off after firing a 96 for the Warriors. Byrge, who placed 11th at last year's state championship, finished sixth overall after hitting 24/25 targets in the extra session. Byrge now owns the top-two highest individual women's performances at the state shoot in school history.
Sophomore Zane Kirubakaran (Ottumwa, IA/Ottumwa) produced a solid outing in trap for the second consecutive year at the state shoot. Kirubakaran, who tallied 93 targets to lead the Warriors last year, rounded out the team scoring this year with 95 birds.
In the afternoon session, the Indian Hills sporting clays squad was led by a dominant performance from Kirubakaran. The sophomore placed third overall for the Warriors for the team's highest individual finish in school history. One year removed from an eighth-place finish in sporting clays, Kirubakaran powered the Warriors with 87 targets.
Kirubakaran was followed by Johnathon Boender (Oskaloosa, IA/Pella Christian) who tallied 83 targets while Cooper Clark (Story City, IA/Roland Story), Carson Abrams (Oskaloosa, IA/Pella Christian) and Eischen each tallied 82 targets as well for the Warriors.
On the ladies side, Emma Adams (Oskaloosa, IA/Oskaloosa) and Byrge each earned top-five individual performances in the field of 14 guns. The duo each tallied 76 targets in regulation before Adams outlasted Byrge 2-1 in a shoot-off for fourth-place.
The Warriors are back in action Sunday morning for the final two disciplines of the state shoot – skeet and super sporting. Action gets underway from the New Pioneer Gun Club at 11:00 AM.
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