The Southwestern Spartans sports shooting team traveled to Indianola on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, for the Grand View Invitational.
According to Spartan Head Coach Marc Roberg, the weather was beautiful. The team of Kyle Redinbaugh, Sydney McElfish, Blake Binns, Tyllar Roesener, and Dalton Smith finished second with a 448. High guns for the Spartans were Redinbaugh and McElfish, both finishing with 92s. Binns ended with an 89; Roesener with an 88; and Smith, Clell Beason, and Brody Neas all finished with 87.
Southwestern traveled to Grand Island, NE, November 3-4, for the ACUI Upper Midwest Conference Championships. It was very cold and windy, just like last year. The events shot were trap, skeet, sporting clays, and super sporting clays. There were 24 colleges and 272 shooters competing. The Spartans finished 13th overall.
Roberg said his team did well in sporting and super sporting clays, finishing a little better than expected since the team doesn’t practice these. In trap, Roberg said the Spartans shot their lowest score of the season with a 434, In skeet, he said the team struggled. Roberg believes the low scores in these events were attributable to the cold and wind.
"It is hard to shoot with heavy coats on," Roberg explained. "We shot trap late on Saturday afternoon and no team shooting that afternoon put up a very good score."
Even though the Spartans shot their lowest trap score to-date, they still ended up in the top 10 (finishing ninth place) in trap.
The highest finishes for SWCC were:
Men’s Division
Super Sporting Clays - Blake Binns, 51st; Tyllar Roesener, 60th; and Clell Beason 81st
Sporting Clays – Blake Binns, 59th; Kyle Redinbaugh, 95th; and Tom Steinbach, 96th
Trap - Kyle Redinbaugh, 79th; Tom Steinbach, 89th; Tyllar Roesener, 91st; and Blake Binns, 95th
Skeet - Blake Binns, 95th; and Clell Beason, 102nd
Binns finished 69th in the Men’s High Overall (total of all events) with a 285.
Tom Steinbach was 103rd with a 268.
Kyle Redinbaugh was 107th with a 266.
Clell Beason was 111th with a 263.
Women’s Division
Super Sporting Clays – Sydney McElfish, 16th; Casey Allen, 19th; and Makenna Lilly, 24th
Sporting Clays – Makenna Lilly, 19th; Casey Allen, 21st; and Sydney McElfish, 29th
Trap – Makenna Lilly, 18th; Sydney McElfish, 41st; and Casey Allen, 45th
Skeet – Sydney McElfish, 17th; Casey Allen, 29th; and Makenna Lilly, 33rd
Women’s High Overall
Makenna Lilly – 18th with a 252
Sydney McElfish – 20th with a 250
Casey Allen – 22nd with a 237
The Spartans next competition is the ACUI Nationals in San Antonio, TX, March 25-30.