The Southwestern Community College (SWCC) Spartan sports shooting team traveled to Indianola on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, to take on Grand View University in a pro-format shoot.
During the event, each team shot 100 birds per person. Then the top 10 from each team competed in a shoot-off, in a live-scoring format, where these scores added to the total team score. The shoot-off consisted of three throwers, each with a higher degree of difficulty. Thrower one was worth one point, thrower two was worth three points, and thrower three was worth five points. The student-athletes competed one at a time and had to call the birds they wanted to shoot. Each individual could only shoot two birds and one had to be out of thrower one. The two birds were thrown simultaneously and the shooter had to hit bird one before shooting at the other bird. The shooter had only two shells.
The point total for each person could be 0 (missed bird one), one (hit bird one and missed the second), four (hit bird one, hit bird two), or six (hit bird one and hit bird three). Each team shot two rounds, alternating shooters (first a Southwestern shooter and then a Grand View shooter).
The Spartans trailed 917 to 895 after the 100-bird program, so SWCC started out 22 points down. After round one, SWCC was still down 17 points.
According to Spartan Head Coach Marc Roberg, they decided the only way to catch up was to go for six points every time.
In round two, the Spartans were down 21 birds after the first two shooters missed, but then caught fire with six out of the next seven shooters scoring six points each. With Grand View struggling, that put SWCC down only six points with three shooters left (two for Grand View and one for SWCC). Unfortunately the next Grand View shooter scored six points. The SWCC shooter also scored six points, but the team was still six points behind, with no SWCC shooters left. The last Grand View shooter scored one point, so the final score was 976 to 969. The Spartans made an admirable comeback, but fell seven birds short.
Overall, Roberg felt good about the outing.
"I was very happy with the improvement I saw in my shooters, and especially proud of their never-give-up attitude in the shoot-off," explained Roberg. "The team thought it was the most fun, exciting, and pressure-packed shoot they had ever been in, and I found it the most fun I have had in any shooting event since I started coaching."
Scores for the Southwestern Spartans in the 100-bird program were:
Tom Steinbach, Creston – 96
Dakota Burgmaier, Creston – 93
Blake Binns, Winterset – 92
Hunter Albers, Indianola – 91
Jessica Aupperle, Wiota – 91
Dillon Glenn, Bethany, MO – 89
Kyle Redinbaugh, Atlantic – 87
Kessler Tomas, Creston – 86
Thane Simmons, Murray – 86
Jacob Hemsworth, Creston – 84
Dalton Smith, Prole – 83
Gabriel Gard, Murray – 75
Sydney McElfish, Greenfield – 73
Mallory Bell, Colfax – 72
Makayla Flora, Adel – 69
McCabe Johnston-Herzberg, West Des Moines – 66
Quentin Siefkas, Peru -57
Cody Lang, Red Oak – 53