MARENGO, Ohio (Jul. 22, 2026) — Two of the closest matches on a rainy and windy team day at the 2026 NRA National Smallbore Rifle Three-Position Championship ended in ties, and both came down to the X-count. Palmyra juniors Gianna Albright and Aimee Ridinger were on the wrong side of the first and the right side of the second.
During Tuesday’s metallic team championship, Black Hawk’s Joe Graf and Erin Gestl fired a 1164 to win by 16 points. The any sight championship gave them no such room. Both Black Hawk and the Palmyra juniors posted 1160 scores, with Graf and Gestl taking the title by seven center shots.
It wasn’t over for Albright and Ridinger, though—they ended the day’s shooting at the 2026 NRA National Smallbore Rifle Three-Position Championship as the High Junior team with a combined score of 2307-93X.
Black Hawk claimed the aggregate team title, with Graf and Gestl posting a combined 2324-113X.
The Whistler Boy competition was a separately fired match later in the day. While the rain stopped, the wind remained present and made shooting a challenge. This match was a hot race between two junior teams: Albright and Ridinger against Denise’s Favorites with Jacob Manly and Ruby Harris, the latter two naming the team after their coach, Denise Loring. Both teams shot an 1164, but Palmyra won a pair of Ruger 10/22s based on their X-count of 47 over Manly and Harris’s 42 Xs.The Palmyra Whistler Boy team was coached by Erin Gestl.
Stay glued to the Shooting Sports USA website for more coverage of the 2026 NRA National Smallbore Rifle Championship. For more information, join the NRA Smallbore Championship Facebook page and visit competitions.nra.org.
