Colfax Shooting Sports Team Claims Trophies at National Match

Colfax Sportsmen’s Club Scholastic Action Shooting Team returned from the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) National Match with trophies and medals.

It was a 1300 plus mile round trip to Cardinal Shooting Center, Marengo, Ohio, for the July 7-15 match. They came back with a lot less ammunition then they left with, but the payoff was in the three team trophies and 15 medals they earned, according to their head coach, Jim Nosker. That’s the most trophies and medals the team has won at National.

Colfax had an open squad of four athletes entered in five different disciplines: iron sighted .22 rimfire pistol, optic sighted .22 rimfire pistol, iron sighted .22 rimfire rifle, optic sighted .22 rimfire rifle, and pistol caliber carbine (PCC.) In addition, they had four other athletes entered in some of those disciplines, plus two entered in 1911 centerfire handgun.

An open squad is composed of athletes of different grade levels and is only entered into competition when a team can’t field a four person squad of any single experience level. Team squads change not only year to year, but also from match to match, Nosker explained. 

At the State Match, Colfax fielded a Varsity Squad and a Rookie Squad. Due to various factors neither squadding was possible at the National Match. Two open squads were built instead.

Open Squad One was composed of athletes Kyle Weller, Kimberly Krista, Evelyn Doyle, and Alex Johnson. Open Squad Two members were Nathaniel Nosker, Eleanor Doyle, Camilla Doyle and Edward Doyle.

Colfax’ Open Squad One came up short in Optic Pistol, where it was only able to place fourth. 

They had to suffer the same thing in Iron Rifle, where they were 0.87 seconds too slow and gave up third place to the Lawrence County Young Guns Range Racers, of Wampum, PA.

However, Alex Johnson of the Colfax team, shooting Intermediate/Advanced, earned a silver medal for coming in second as an individual in that age group. Jesse Grant of the Central Florida Rifle and Pistol Club, Orlando, claimed the first place honors.

In PCC, long one of Colfax’ strongest areas, their Open Squad One claimed a trophy by coming in third, earning the squad members bronze medals. They were 2.61 seconds short of second place, which was won by the Ballisticrats of Wright City, MO. First place went to the Boone/Hartford Hotshots of Hubertus, WI.

Johnson racked up another personal medal in PCC, winning the second place silver. The gold was again taken from him by Jesse Grant of Orlando.

Second place was awarded to Colfax’ Open Squad One in Iron Pistol, earning the squad members silver medals. Team Gotta from Custer, WA claimed the first place honors.

In .22 rimfire Optic Rifle, Colfax Open Squad One captured the big trophy cup and gold medals for the squad members by nailing down first place. They were a comfortable 7.28 seconds ahead of second place Wilco Shooting Sports, Liberty Hill, TX.

Camilla Doyle, shooting in her first National Match, won the second place silver medal in Ladies Rookie division of Optic Rifle. Gold was claimed by Tinsley Marlowe of the Hub City Topshots, Boiling Springs, SC.

Doyle’s silver was particularly pleasing, Nosker said, because the night before she was set to compete in last year’s National Match she suffered an eye injury and had to withdraw.

He pointed out that five of Colfax’s eight athletes at National were girls, proving that the sport offers a level playing field for all.

What’s more, females were more than adequately represented on the national stage.  Kylie Wells of the Ballisticrats shot high overall – meaning ladies and men – in Optic Pistol, Iron Rifle and PCC. She was second high overall in Iron Pistol and third high overall in Optic Rifle. But since SASP doesn’t combine men and ladies for trophies, Wells had to settle for going home with high overall ladies medals in all five disciplines.

On top of that, Wells claimed first place, ladies Centerfire Pistol Optic and in Rimfire Revolver Iron, while she took second in ladies 1911 Pistol and in Centerfire Revolver Iron. The only event she did not enter was Centerfire Pistol. Wells was undoubtedly the top athlete of the entire National Match, Nosker said, proving that competitive shooting isn’t just a man’s sport

With approximately 2,350 shooters registered, the SASP National Match event was the largest sport action shooting match in world history. It drew scholastic shooters from across the country.

Nosker explained that because not all athletes can make the trip, other teams reshuffle their competitive squads just as Colfax did. The result is that there’s no way of knowing what athletes they’ll be facing, or how good the competition will be. This year’s times were astoundingly fast and Colfax’ athletes did an excellent job of standing up to the challenge, he said.

No Colfax athlete was at the bottom of their experience level standings and most were above the median. A uniform performance by all of the members of Open Squad One was what secured them three trophies out of the five disciplines they were entered in.

Colfax’ athletes should be extremely proud of the performance they turned in at the national level. He said the keys to the team success were talented athletes who trained diligently, coupled with the Colfax Sportsmen’s Club providing an excellent training facility.

In Scholastic Action Shooting, athletes are grouped together into squads of four. They shoot four different target arrays of five steel targets each. Each athlete shoots the array five times. The slowest time is thrown out. The aggregate of the athletes times on each array is the individual score and the aggregate of the four member squad is the squad score. The lowest scores, meaning the fastest time, wins.

If an athlete shoots the course clean, only 400 rounds would be required for the match. That’s not often done. But, if every athlete at National this year shot clean, 940,000 rounds would have gone down range. With practice rounds factored in, along with misses, it’s more likely that about 1,000,000 rounds were burned up, Nosker said. That was a combination of .22 rimfire and centerfire, with rimfire being the predominate round used.

If all the rounds were .22 rimfire, a total of about 5,571 pounds would have been launched. But since a fair amount of the rounds fired were undoubtedly 9mm, the total was well over 3 tons of lead.

To keep athletes safe during such a bombardment, eye and ear protection are required anytime a person is near the shooting bays. A coach and a range safety officer are always with an athlete when they’re in the shooter’s box. That way, young shooters can safely enjoy the sport, he said.

Colfax’ scholastic teams are open to anyone in grade school through high school seniors. Previous shooting experience is not necessary; the team’s coaches will provide all the training required.

Autoloading firearms are required. Ruger 10/22s dominate in rimfire rifle. In rimfire pistol a much wider array of makes are represented, with Ruger and Browning likely being the most used brands.

SASP’s season runs from September 1 through August 31. The Colfax team will host an open house and organizational meeting this fall, according to Nosker.