The Trap portion of the Fall Selection Match concluded earlier this month at the Delta Resort and Spa just outside of Tillar, AR. Three-time reigning National Champion Ashley Carroll (pictured) was the familiar name earning a victory while a 16-year-old Grayson Davey was impressive beyond his years in earning top male performance.
Olympic qualification and country quota allocations officially gets underway during next year’s World Championships, August 31 to September 14. Fall Selection is part one of a two-part qualification system established to make the Shotgun World Championships Team and features 250 Qualification targets plus one Final in each discipline. The second stage of World Championship selection will take place at the 2018 Spring Selection Match, March 19-25 in Tucson, AZ. Juniors will earn their World Championship selection during one match at next year’s Spring Selection. Performance at Fall Selection also determines athlete participants for the season-opening 2018 World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, next March.
Despite a hectic summer and just weeks after finishing sixth at World Championships, it was business as usual for Carroll (Solvang, CA) in winning Women’s Trap. In 10 domestic competitions since 2015, Carroll has earned six victories including five in a row. Carroll was four targets better than her next closest competitor following Qualification. She finished fifth in the Final, which would be good enough for a four-target margin of victory.
Julia Stallings (Rossville, TN) was second followed by Aeriel Skinner (Jackson, CA). Stallings was the Finals winner and tied Skinner in overall points before the two had a shoot-off to determine podium placement. Stallings hit the first target and Skinner missed. Nationals runner-up Kayle Browning-Thomas (Wooster, AR) would finish fourth while two-time Olympic bronze medalist Corey Cogdell-Unrein (Eagle River, AK) was sixth. Another Volunteer State representative, 12-year-old Carey Garrison (Crossville, TN) had another impressive performance after winning a Junior National title earlier this summer, with a fourth place overall finish.
Another star junior performer was Grayson Davey (Anchorage, AK) who headlined an overall sterling junior performance in the men’s ranks with two of the top three finishes and three of the top six. Davey qualified two targets better than the rest of the field and then had a fourth-place result in the Final to ultimately win by one target. Davey’s win represents the 13th different winner of a Men’s Trap event since 2012―with no consecutive winner from one event to the next.
Jake Wallace (Castaic, CA) was the Finals winner which moved him to second over 17-year-old Mick Wertz (Muncy, PA), who was the second-best qualifier, but finished sixth in the Final. Five-time Olympian Glenn Eller (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Katy, TX) and Brad Beckmann (Chesterfield, MO) tied for fourth after finishing third and second in the Final while junior Garrett Beissner (Hondo, TX) rounded out the top six.
See the full results at this link: www.usashooting.org/library/Competitions/0_2017/SG_FS/Results/Final_Trap_Results_SG_FS.pdf
Article and photo courtesy of USA Shooting
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