Clark and Lindsey win gold at SCTP Regionals

The pop of gunfire could be heard from miles around the Nashville Gun Club last weekend as kids from across the state gathered to compete in the Scholastic Clay Target Program's Regional Competition.

There were three disciplines the students can shoot in at Regionals: trap, skeet, and sporting clays. Lewis County had 19 students shoot their shot in the trap competition. In trap, the athletes shoot at clay targets launched by a single machine, traveling away from them. Five athletes line up, and shoot in succession until reaching the fifth shooter and then the team rotates, giving each athlete a chance to shoot from every angle. The athletes shot in rounds of 25, all the way up to 100.

The team shot in brackets, broken up by age. The following athletes placed 13th, 14th and 15th in the Rookie bracket: Micheal Lyons who shot 45/100, Gabriel Shook who shot 44/100 and Hunter Carroll who shot 44/100. Shooting in the Intermediate/Entry Level bracket was Spencer Clark who shot 87/100, which put him in 8th place; Breslin Baxter shot 68/100 which put him in 45th place; and Casen Himes shot 64/100 which put him in 64th place.

The Intermediate/Advanced squad placed third. Trasey Lindsey shot 97/100, which earned him first place. Emery Norris shot 92/100, which placed her in third place in the women's bracket. Mahaley Bean shot 86/100 which put her in seventh place. Ryan Tanner shot 88/100 which put him in 14th place. Clay Bean shot 86/100, which earned him 16th place. Mason Owen shot 80/100 which placed him in 24th; and Xavier Shook shot 32/100 which placed him in 39th.

Zoie Clark took home the silver medal for shooting 95/100 in the women's Senior/Jr. Varsity bracket; and Jasmine Whitwell earned seventh place by shooting 76/100. Austin Hicks placed 69th in the men's bracket after shooting 58/100. In the Senior/Varsity men's bracket, Chase Carroll shot 93/100, earning him 43rd place; Daniel Burcham shot 89/100, putting him in 71rst place; and Payton Tripp shot 89/100 which put him in 77th place.

There were four kids from Lewis County who shot in the Skeet competition, where two machines throw the clay targets from an angle and the shooters move through 8 different positions to take their aim. Zoie Clark shot 86 and Lindsey shot 79, placing them both in fifth. Burcham shot 77, which earned him 49th place; and Spencer Clark shot 63, earning him 13th.

Six Lewis County athletes competed in Sporting Clays where shooters aim for the clay targets being shot from an angled, single machine which randomly launches the targets left and right. This time Zoie Clark took home the gold and shot 85/100. Spencer Clark shot 76/100 and Norris shot 56/100; which placed them both in third place. Tanner shot 74/100 which placed him in sixth, Lindsey shot 64/100 which placed him in nineteenth, and Burcham shot 78/100 which earned him thirty-fifth place.