4H shooting sports teams bring home medals – Davie County Enterprise Record

By Nelson Cowden

For companies

The Davie County 4H Shooting Sports Club had a spectacular performance at the NC 4H Central Regional Shooting Sports Tournament on Aug. 17 at Millstone 4H Camp and the John M. Lentz Wildlife Education Center and Range in Ellerbe.

If the math is correct, the Davie Club brought home 30 team and individual medals, including many personal bests, with most of the competitors qualifying for the state tournament.

Three junior teams took part.

The DC Hunters consisted of Hunter Myers, Porter James, Mason Wood, Colton Lockard, and Ethan Manley. This was the first 4H tournament for all but Porter. The team with all members won team gold in shotgun and muzzleloader shooting and then in combinations also won team gold in open sight rifle with Hunter, Mason, Colton, and Ethan. They won the telescopic rifle with Hunter, Porter, Colton, and Mason; gold in compound archery with Porter, Mason, and Colton; and gold in air rifle with Hunter, Mason, and Ethan.

This means the DC Hunters team won gold in 6 of 8 team events. This is a first for Davie 4H Shooting Sports and Tom Cowden Youth Shooting Sport.

In addition to the team medals, the juniors also won individual medals. Hunter Myers took second in the HOA (High Overall) in the shotgun and Peter Redelsheimer took second in the individual. Hunter also won gold in the open sight rifle and air rifle. Colton Lockard won gold in the muzzleloader and telescopic rifle and Mason Wood won the compound archery and added a bronze medal in the air rifle. Peter Redelsheimer also took third in the HOA and third individually in the recurve archery with a bronze award.

Silas Johnson, Saul Hardy and Walker Evans did not win a medal but qualified to compete in the state tournament in September. Fellow junior competitors Morgan Wood and Jaydon Carter achieved personal bests in their first competition.

The seniors also had a fantastic tournament, not quite as much gold, but the same number of medals as the group and many qualifications for the state tournament. Davie fielded three senior teams.

The DC Trailblazers took third place in the shotgun and rimfire pistol events and won gold in the muzzleloader event. The Trailblazers consist of Riley Barnes, Levi Williams, Dakota Wilkinson-Hohf and Cameron White.

The DC Long Hunters senior team of Brantlee Evans, Reece Long, Brook Lockard and Maddox Nifong won the team silver medal in muzzleloading shooting, narrowly edging out the Trailblazers, and took team bronze in telescopic rifle, compound match archery and air rifle.

The third senior team, the DC Hole Punchers, consisting of Evan Durham, Cooper Rogers and Gwen Vogler, did not win any team medals, but did win several individual and HOA medals.

Evan Durham won gold in the individual air pistol and open sight rifle and second place in the HOA open sight rifle.

Cooper Rogers was the best individual shooter in small bore pistol shooting and second in the HOA.

In the telescopic rifle, Brook Lockard narrowly beat his teammate Reece Long to take silver, while Reece won the bronze medal. Reece also took silver in the air pistol and bronze for the compound match archery, third HOA.

The state 4H tournament is scheduled for September 14th.