Talk of a historic Junior Olympic shotgun discipline sweep by T.J. Bayer (College Station, Texas) made for a good storyline coming into skeet competition Thursday. But by the time the last clay had been dusted Friday, Bayer was nowhere to be found and fellow Texan Phillip Jungman (Caldwell, Texas) assumed his place atop the podium, a place he’s become very familiar with.
Jungman earned a second straight title while Dania Vizzi (Odessa, Fla.) earned her first Junior Olympic title as the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) came to an end on the first day of summer at the International Shotgun Range at Fort Carson outside Colorado Springs.
Bayer, perhaps feeling the effects of 10 days of shooting not to mention the pain from a hiking accident earlier in the week, wasn’t his normal self in his specialty event and would missed the finals by one target, ending all hope of a truly special Junior Olympic run. Still, two titles in events he rarely trains for, is elite by anyone’s standards.
The six men’s finalists were all separated by just four targets heading into the 25-target final and it would be Jungman fighting back from two targets down with a finals-best 24 to overtake Granger DeWitt (Bryan, Texas) and William Dunnebacke (Hampshire, Tenn.). Jungman keeps his National Junior Team status with the win while DeWitt earns the coveted USA Team jacket as a new national team member. Dunnebacke along with fourth-place finisher John Ferebee III (Greenville, N.C.) and fifth-place finisher Jakob Keldsen (Walkerton, Ind.) join the newly-formed National Junior Olympic Squad as a result of their overall performance. Finishing sixth was Hayden Stewart (Columbia, Tenn.).
On the women’s side, Vizzi continues her hot shooting after establishing herself at the 2013 Spring Selection match where she made the open final and finished fourth. Vizzi tied Hannah Houston (Columbia, Tenn.) in qualifying with 114 and was even with Houston going into the final two stations in the wind-blown final. Houston would drop four of the last five targets while Vizzi missed just one to help secure the hard-fought victory.
Finishing nine targets behind Vizzi in third place was 2012 Junior Olympic champ Brandy Drozd (Bryan, Texas) after coming into the event as the favorite having won the Spring Selection match in early May. Gayla Gregory (College Station, Texas) shot the best finals round of the six competitors with a 23/25 to secure fourth position while Katie Lackey (Denver, Colo.) finished fifth to join Gregory and Drozd on the Junior Olympic Squad. Kendall Reed (Azle, Texas) finished sixth.
For complete NJOSC results for shotgun, click here:http://www.usashooting.org/library/Competitions/2013_JOs/Shotgun/JO_Shotgun_Results.pdf
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