Apr. 13, 2008- The Lindenwood shooting team won another national championship on Sunday, the fifth straight year that it has won the ACUI Intercollegiate Clay Target National Championship.
The Lindenwood shooting team was in a back-and-forth battle through four days with Texas A&M. The Lions led by just two targets going into the final day and the team wrapped up the title by winning the final event, American Trap, by four shots. Lindenwood finished by hitting 1,528 out of 1,600 targets, while Texas A&M was runner-up with 1,522 targets.
Individually, six Lindenwood shooters earned All-American honors by finishing in the top-10. Mark Schutzuis led the way with a third-place finish after hitting 383 out of 400 birds. Among the others, Nicholas Gamel finished fourth with a score of 378, Robert Auerbach was fifth with 375, Matthew Hoffman was eighth with 369, and Michael Hahn was ninth with 367.
In the women’s individual standings, Lindenwood’s Alexandra Chiang was the team’s top finisher by being the runner-up after hitting 338 targets. Jenna Mclean was third with 329 targets, Jessica Forbes was fourth with 326 and Corina Bass was fifth with 322.
International Skeet The shooting national championship opened up with the international skeet competition on Thursday.
As a team, Lindenwood recorded a score of 276, which was second by three shots behind Texas A&M. Scoring for the Lions were B.J. Blanchard, who hit 94 targets, and Robert Auerbach and Mark Schutzius, who each hit 91.
Individually, Alexandra Chiang won the women’s international skeet competition. She hit a total of 110 out of 125 targets during the day. Jessica Forbes finished fourth for the Lady Lions and Jenna Mclean was fifth.
On the men’s side, Blanchard finished fourth individually. He tied for the top score of 94 during the team part of the competition. In the finals, he hit 23 of 25 birds and was in a three-way tie for second. In that shootout, he ended up fourth overall. Also advancing to the finals for Lindenwood were Mark Schutzuis, who finished sixth.
International Trap Lindenwood won the International Trap team competition and also took the top two individual spots in the event.
In the team race, the Lions hit 276 targets during the event, three ahead of Kansas State and four ahead of Trinity. Scoring for Lindenwood was Kory Stassi with a 97, Todd Pulis with an 85 and Mark Schutzius with a 94.
Individually, Stassi added 23 targets during the final round to win first-place in the event. He concluded by hitting 120 of 125 targets, becoming the first Lindenwood champion in that event since 2004. Teammate Jesse Molstre was in a four-way tie after the first four rounds, but advanced to the finals after a shootout, and then hit 24 of 25 targets in the finals to move up to second-place.
On the women’s side, Cassandra Ding was third after hitting 99 targets, and Julie Lambert was fourth, two targets behind Ding.
American Skeet Despite losing its top skeet shooter to the U.S.A. Olympic team, Lindenwood still won the team competition.
Lindenwood concluded the event by hitting 495 targets out of 500 as a team. This was good enough for a five shot victory over Texas A&M. For the team shoot, Mark Schutzuis had a perfect score of 100. Jon Shockley, Nicholas Gamel and Michael Hahn each recorded a 99.
Individually, Schutzius was one of four shooters with perfect scores during the team competition. He then won the final round to take first-place in the competition. One of other shooters with a perfect 100 in the first four rounds was John Barnes. He finished fourth after the shootout.
In the women’s shoot, Corina Bass finished third, the highest for a Lindenwood shooter. Jessica Forbes was fourth and Jenna Mclean was fifth. Bass hit 96 targets on the day, Forbes had 95 and Mclean hit 94.
Five Stand Coming into this year’s five stand event, Lindenwood had never lost in its previous five years. That streak didn’t end as the team easily captured the five stand championship once again.
Lindenwood had a team score of 220 in the event, 30 targets better than Southeastern Illinois. Among the team’s leaders were Nicholas Gamel and Mark Schutzuis with 46 targets, Jon Shockley hit 42 birds and Jesse Molstre hit 39.
In the individual standings, Lindenwood took the top three spots, with Gamel coming in second and Schutzius finishing third.
On the women’s side, Corina Bass led the way with a runner-up finish. She tied with teammate Geri Williams by hitting 36 targets, and then winning the shootoff.
American Trap The final event at the 2008 Championship went down to the wire, with Lindenwood and Kansas State having to go to a shootout to decide the winner. When all the dust settled, Lindenwood had won another team championship. Both the Lions and Kansas State hit 487 out of 500 targets during the team competition. In the shootout, Lindenwood hit 45 targets, compared to just 40 by Kansas State. Shooting for the winning team were Jesse Molstre and Joshua White, who both hit 99 targets, Pat Klug, who had a score of 98, Kory Stassi, who hit 97 targets, and Aaron Thompson, who hit 94.
Individually, the two Lindenwood shooters who hit 99 targets, Molstre and White, were in a seven-way tie for first after four rounds. In the final round, Molstre hit 24 targets and finished third overall. White hit 23 targets and tied for fourth.
In the women’s standings, Lindenwood shooters filled the second through seventh positions. Sara Simpson led the way after hitting 97 targets through four rounds. In the finals, she hit 19 and finished runner-up in the competition. Rounding out the top-five were Corina Bass, Jenna Mclean and Julie Lambert.
