The State Fair Community College shooting sports team participated in the 2022 National Collegiate Shooting Sports Athletic Association Central Regional Fall Qualifier hosted by Midland University in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Sept. 17-18.

SFCC competed against 14 different schools at the qualifier. The schools participated in American Trap, American Skeet and Sporting Clays. Sarah Manuel is the head coach for SFCC's sports shooting team, which is in its second season.

"I thought Will VanVactor from Marshall High School performed very well from our last competition to this competition," said Manuel. "He raised his percentage by 10%; he shot 244 out of 300 birds. I was very proud of that accomplishment.

"As a team, we had seven people locked in for nationals. NJ McKenzie from Boonville locked in for skeet, trap and sporting clays. Braiden McEachern from Slater locked in for trap, skeet and sporting clays. Anthony Walls from Ashland locked in for skeet and sporting clays. Connor Hess from California (Missouri) locked in for trap and sporting clays. Hunter Snow from Columbia locked in for sporting clays. Matthew Richardson from Hughesville locked in for sporting clays, and Philip Crawford from Jefferson City locked in for trap."

The schools were not broken down into divisions in the regional. There were four community colleges at the event. Based on Manuel's calculations, SFCC took second among the community colleges participating at Lincoln.

"Iowa Western beat us by three birds for the High Over-All among the community colleges," said Manuel. "At nationals, we will be broken down into our own division."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics