State clay target
Schmidtke to rep MCW; Fairmont competes as a team
Teya Schmidtke will represent Martin County West at the Clay Target State Tournament at the Minneapolis Gun Club in Prior Lake on Friday. Also, Fairmont will compete as a team.
Individuals and teams qualified for Friday’s event through the USA Clay Target League at a nine-day shootout in Alexandria that drew 8,100 student athletes from 348 teams from around the state. That event is reportedly the largest clay target shooting sports event in the world.
There will be 125 individuals and 40 teams at Friday’s one-day finals competition. The team competition begins at 9 a.m., and the individual tournament will start at approximately 1 p.m.
A total of 40 teams and 125 individual shooters will be in the running for trophies presented by the Minnesota State High School League.
Minnesota has the nation’s only clay target tournament recognized by a state high school athletic association.
According to a posting on the Martin County West Activities Facebook page, there were 23 athletes on the MCW trap team.
The athletes practiced and competed weekly at the Truman Gun Club for eight weeks and submitted scores for six of those weeks. Those scores are then used to determine both conference and state placement.
The Maverick Trap Shooting team finished in second place in the Class 2 Conference 5 with Schmidtke taking first place for the girls. She also tied for third overall for the girls throughout the state.
For the boys, Kayden Glidden placed second and Riley Ebeling third.
Schmidtke also competed in the state tournament last year, tying for 13th place with 92 of 100.
The top returnee in the girls division is Foley’s Delayna Rife, who was second last year. She was fifth in the final state rankings. Ava Klassen of Benson is first.
Ashley Sarvie of Hopkins, who was fifth at last year’s state tourney, also returns.
Here are the top five girls shooters in tge by average in the state for the regular season:
1. Ava Klassen, Benson 24.7
2. Brianna Nelson, Ortonville 24.4
3. Teya Schmidtke, Martin County West 24.3
(tie) Miranda Klassen, Benson 24.3
5. Delayna Rife, Foley 24.1
Fairmont will compete as a team, led by Dane Breitbarth, who placed third a season ago. He is tied for fourth in the state ratings.
Another medalist returning from last year is Buffalo’s Andrew Schmidt, who was fourth.
Monticello’s Lance Klersy returns with a chance to win a second consecutive crown. A year ago, he and Alden-Conger’s Ross Huper were the only two competitors to record perfect scores of 100 in the Open Division.
There’s a tie for first in this year’s state rankings between Ryban Aish of St. Francis and Comfrey’s Brent Simon, who both averaged 24.9 out of 25.
Here are the top five boys shooters (plus ties) by average in the state for the regular season:
1. Ryban Aish, St. Francis 24.9
(tie) Brent Simon, Comfrey 24.9
3. Saixus McTighe, Ortonville 24.8
4. Dane Breitbarth, Fairmont 24.7
(tie) Martin Verheul, Ortonville 24.7
(tie) Holdyn Willford, Lanesboro 24.7
(tie) Conway Englund, Brandon-Evansville 24.7
(tie) Branko Schoenbauer, Tri-City United 24.7