Local Youths Score Silver and Bronze at National Championship

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Ten members of the Newberry Junior Pistol Club traveled to Fort Benning Ga for the US Junior Olympic Progressive Positional Pistol National Championship held July 31st-August 2nd. The three day competition was the largest ever with 150 competitors. Day 1 was registration and practice and 2 days of competition followed. Clarissa Haltiwanger, Shelby Mccullough, Emily Mccullough, and Nicholas Long competed from the basic supported position. Sean Blanton, Conrad Long, Brianna Kinard, Valerie Long, Carrie Haltiwanger, and Taylor Martin competed from the international standing position.


All of the Newberry shooters did well during the competition with Carrie, Taylor, Emily, Shelby, Nicholas, and Clarissa all shooting personal best scores. Taylor Martin was able to take Bronze in the ladies individual category. Carrie Haltiwanger was not far behind in 6th. Newberry had 2 top 10 finishers in the individual basic supported category with Clarissa Haltiwanger finishing 4th and Nicholas Long finishing 7th. The Newberry shooters did very well in the team competition with the basic supported team of Clarissa Haltiwanger, Nicholas Long, and Shelby Mccullough winning the Silver medal. The international standing team of Sean Blanton, Carrie Haltiwanger, and Brianna Kinard finished just out of medal position in 4th place.


Coaches Ben Blanton and Shawn Martin were extremely proud of the performance of the shooters. The hard work of the shooters was evident in the number of personal bests fired at the competition. The coaches and shooters would also like to thank the parents for their support and the organizations who provided financial or material support to the team. In particular The Friends of NRA Foundation, Gun Owners of SC, and Stokes Trainor of Newberry.

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