The JROTC Three-Position Service Championship series is one of the premier scholastic air rifle matches of the year for JROTC cadets around the United States. Each year, this annual Sporter and Precision air rifle CMP competition attracts hundreds of high school athletes to the range.
This year, the event received the second highest participation over its 17-year history, with 875 athletes overall—a number only surpassed by the 2016 match with 890 shooters.
“It was great to see the turnout for the 2023 JROTC Service Championships. If not for some last-minute weather-related cancellations, this year would have had the best turnout ever,” Brad Donoho, JROTC Match Director, said. “To see the participation bounce back like it has after covid disrupted everything speaks volumes to the health of JROTC marksmanship.”
The JROTC Air Rifle Service Championship is a 3x20 air rifle competition, where competitors fire 20 record shots from three positions: prone, standing and kneeling. The 2023 regional Service Championships were held in three locations (Utah, Alabama and Ohio) over the weekends of February 2-4 and February 9-11. Both individual and team awards were presented. Top scorers overall will move on to the National Championship at Camp Perry, March 23-25.
Earning the top spot among Army JROTC Sporter individual athletes in the JROTC Service Championships was Jose Gonzalez, of North Brunswick H.S. in North Carolina, with a score of 1193-39X. Gonzalez narrowly claimed the highest score—clearing the title only by X-count. Leading Precision by just one point over the second-place finisher was Liv Lusky of Lumpkin County H.S. in Georgia with 1282-73X.
Coinciding with the individual event was the four-person team match for both Sporter and Precision in each service branch. Army’s top Sporter team was Webb City H.S. from Missouri, leading by 40 points over the runner-up, while the Precision contest was led by Ansbach High School, AE.
In Navy competition, Danjela DeJesus of Camden County H.S. in Georgia fired an impressive score of 1290-91X for the Precision title. Brianna Benedetto of Zion Benton H.S. in Illinois, reached 1183-32X for the overall score in the Sporter match.
DeJesus’s Camden County was the leading Precision team in the Navy event, as Pascagoula H.S. from Mississippi earned the top Sporter spot.
Samantha Zermeno of Nation Ford High School in South Carolina fired a score of 1218-49X to overtake the Marine Corps Sporter competition, as Granbury High School’s (Texas) Caroline Martin led the Marine Corps Precision event by 15 points, with a total score of 1295-104X.
Nation Ford and Granbury were also the leading Marine Corps Sporter and Precision teams, respectively.
The Air Force competition saw Charles Bratton, II, of Clover H.S. in South Carolina, amassing a score of 1196-40X to take a 24-point lead in Sporter, with Chloe Shannon of Union H.S. in Oklahoma earning the top score by nearly 30 points in Precision and 1271-80X overall. Bratton’s Clover H.S. went on to claim the overall spot in the Sporter team match by nearly 50 points. The overseas Alconbury H.S. led the Precision team event by four points.
See the 2023 JROTC Service Championship selections here.
Learn more about CMP.
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