The A&A Shooters stop for a team photo at the California International Trap Qualifier for the Junior Olympics July 19 at Coon Creek Trap and Skeet in Lincoln, with, back from left Evan Ornouski, Bret Johnson, Cole Burton, Pat Teixeira, Cameron Holmes and Brandon McGee and kneeling Miranda Ornouski, left, and Olivia Ornouski Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch International trapshooters, including members of the Amador & Argonaut Shooters club, stop for a group photo at the state championships July 19 at Coon Creek Trap and Skeet in Lincoln. A&A Shooters took silver and bronze medals at the event. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch From left, Amador & Argonaut Shooters coach, Richard Lynch stands with his second place team of Bret Johnson, Pat Teixeira and Brandon McGee. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch A&A Shooter, Bret Johnson, bronze medalist, right, joins USA Olympic Development team members, Jake Wallace, left, (silver) and Brian Burrows (gold) on the podium. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch In the ribbon ceremony, Miranda Ornouski, left, steps up on the second rung for her silver medal in women's individual, with gold medal winner Stephanie Martinago, center, and bronze medalist Ashley Carroll of Santa Ynez. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch A&A Shooters bronze medalist Bret Johnson shoots in the final round with USA Olympic Development team members. A&A's Miranda Ornouski, left, shoots in the competition. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

From staff reports

jreece@ledger-dispatch.com

The California International Trap Qualifier for the Junior Olympics was held Saturday, July 19 at Coon Creek Trap and Skeet in Lincoln.

Twenty young shooting athletes from the Scholastic Clay Target Program from Northern California and Southern California and three shooters on the Olympic Development team participated in the competition.

A contingency of Amador County's Amador & Argonaut Shooters youth trapshooting team were there to give the more demanding International version of trapshooting a try. After the completion of the American trap season in mid-June, eight members of the A&A Shooters, the local SCTP team, showed an interest in learning the International style of trap and committed to three weeks of intensive practices run by Coach Richard Lynch to prepare for the competition.

After an intra-team selection match to determine the three member squads, Pat Teixeira, Bret Johnson and Brandon McGee made up the top squad to represent A&A, with Miranda Ornouski, Cole Burton and Cameron Holmes as the runner-up squad. Olivia and Evan Ornouski also participated and competed as individuals for A&A.

For most, this was the first time to shoot International trap, which is a much more difficult clay target game than American Trap, with faster targets and more extreme angles.

Other SCTP teams sent shooters this year, with teams coming from shooting clubs in Stockton, Lincoln, Livermore, San Diego and Santa Ynez. Also there to shoot as unaligned competitors were USA Development Team members Stephanie Martinago and Brian Burrows.

The shooting commenced at 8:20 a.m. with all 23 contestants to shoot five rounds of 25 targets each. After 100 individual targets or 300 team targets, the top A&A Shooters team of Pat Teixeira, Bret Johnson and Brandon McGee were in second place with a 244, only two targets behind a team form Santa Ynez.

In the fifth and final round, Santa Ynez shot a team score of 61 out of 75, with Jake Wallace on that team breaking his second 25-straight of the day to keep his team in first with a team total of 307 points of a total possible 400.

A&A could not keep up this Olympic pace and ended their last round with a 58, leaving them in second place - five points back - with a score of 302. Taking third in the team event was San Diego with a score of 290.

A&A's other team of Miranda Ornouski, Cole Burton and Cameron Holmes came in fourth with a team score of 262, followed by Lincoln with a 257 and Stockton with a 251.

In International Trap, the top six individuals shoot a final round of 25 targets, which is added to their qualifying scores to determine the men's and women's individual winners. In the regular competition, two shots are allowed to break the target but in the final round only one shot may be taken.

Two A&A Shooters, Brandon McGee with a score of 101 out of 125 and Bret Johnson with a 102 stepped into two of the top six slots along with Josh Conro from San Diego with a score of 101 and the three Olympic Development team shooters, Martinago 110, Wallace 116 and Burrows 121.

This was the first time for A&A Shooters to shoot flash targets, which when hit expel red dust that shows up well when being filmed. Olympic hopeful Martinago, who had broke her first 25-straight in competition earlier in the day, broke a 20 in the shoot-off to secure first place in the women's class and the gold medal. In second, having the silver medal placed around her neck was A&A Shooter Miranda Ornouski with a score of 97 out of a possible 125. Taking the bronze was Ashley Carroll from Santa Ynez with a 94.

In the men's class, Brian Burrows shot world class scores, dropping only four targets in the regular rounds and losing only two targets in the final round for a total 144 out of 150 and gold.

Jake Wallace was not far behind, shooting a 20 in the final for a total of 136, giving him second place. But it was first-time bunker shooter Bret Johnson that stepped up onto that third rung and claimed bronze for A&A with an 18 in the final for a total of 120.

Conro shot a 117 and A&A Shooter Mc Gee ended a very successful day with a 114. A&A Shooters finished the competition with the following individual scores out of 125 targets: Pat Teixeira 99, Cole Burton 89, Evan Ornouski 87, Cameron Holmes 76 and Olivia Ornouski 57.

Unlike American trap, International trap is an Olympic sport. Cory Cogdell, the USA's women's trapshooter for the Beijing Olympic Games this year, got her shooting career started by participating in SCTP, a national youth development program organized and administered by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Three years ago the NSSF teamed up with USA Shooting, the arm of the Olympic Shooting sports, to sponsor the Junior Olympic competition. At these state qualifiers, the No. 1 team and any individual shooter with a score of 105 or over out of 125 targets qualifies to attend the National Junior Olympics, held at the Olympic Training Center at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo.

While the International trap training is over for this year for A&A, the team's two state championship American trap teams are continuing training sessions at the local True Sportsman Club in preparation for the National SCTP competition to be held at the World Recreational Shooting Center in Sparta, Ill., on August 4-5.

California crowns youth sporting clays champions

Young sporting clays shooters from across California earned state titles at the Scholastic Clay Target Program California Sporting Clays State Championship July 19 at Camanche Hills Hunting Preserve in Ione.

The sporting clays competition included several teams and individuals qualifying to represent California at the upcoming national championships. The competition featured some of California's top young shooters in the varsity division.

SCTP, for youths in grades 12 and under, is a program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, managed in partnership with the national governing bodies for shooting sports: USA Shooting, Amateur Trapshooting Association, National Skeet Shooting Association and National Sporting Clays Association.

California teams participating in the state title shoot qualified for the SCTP National Championships July 31 to Aug. 5 at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta, Ill. The best of these young shooters could be selected to attend an Olympic development camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., and some will go on to compete at the collegiate level.

For more information, visit www.nssf.org/sctp.

The SCTP California Sporting Clays state champions in the Varsity Division (grades 9-12) were, in first place finishers, the Camanche Clay Busters, who hit 247 out of 300 targets. The team is Wade Johnson of Pine Grove, Tyler Parker of Galt and Aeric Skinner of Ione.

Second place in varsity went to the Longshots, which scored 215 of 300 possible points. Longshots were Joseph Retherford of Suisun City, Mike Yaroch of Cameron Park and Michael Yates of Suisun City.