Six competitors outshot Braden Peiser across the two smallbore qualification matches in Colorado Springs. He beat all of them anyway.
Peiser’s 587 and 587 left him sixth among the eight finalists on match scores alone, but he arrived at the 2026 USA Shooting Rifle Fall Selection Match carrying a 1181 national championship score, 10 points clear of anyone else in the men’s 50m three-position field. That cushion put him atop the qualification standings at 2355, and a 358 in the final—the best men’s final of the week—closed it out at 2713.0.
Ivan Roe finished second at 2702.3 after a 354.3 final, with Gavin Barnick third at 2685.5. Barnick had opened the competition with a 590, the highest single match score fired by any man in the discipline, and could not convert it.
Katie Zaun left less to chance. Her 1175 was the top national championship score in the women’s field, her 594 was the highest single match anyone fired in either smallbore relay, and her 362.9 in the final was the best final score of the entire match, men’s or women’s. Add it up and Zaun won at 2719.9.
Cecelia Ossi was the runner-up with a score of 2706.8, while Sagen Maddalena, the Paris 2024 silver medalist, ranked third with 2695.8. Alison Weisz finished fourth at 2685.3, less than three points off the podium, despite posting the best two-match total in the women’s field at 1183. Griffin Lake, who fired a 590 of his own in the opening men’s match, likewise finished fourth at 2673.1. Both had won their 10m air rifle titles earlier in the week, and neither could make it two.
Levi Clark placed fifth among the men at 2660.3, followed by Peter Fiori at 2649.5 and Tyler and Ryan Wee, both of North Carolina, in seventh and eighth. Karlie Lynn took fifth in the women’s field at 2653.3, with Ashlyn Blake sixth, Mary Tucker seventh and Carley Seabrooke eighth.
Junior standings at Fall Selection are decided on the two qualification matches alone, without the national championship score or the final, which produced an outcome worth reading twice. Peiser, the men’s open champion, finished third among juniors.
Tyler Wee took the junior men’s title with matching 589s for an 1178 total, one point ahead of Lake and four ahead of Peiser. Logan Sanchez was fourth at 1158 with Ryan Wee fifth at 1157.
Ashlyn Blake won the junior women’s title at 1172, and she did it from behind. Karlie Lynn led after the first match with a 588 and was still in front through four series of the second, then closed with a pair of 93s to finish at 1169. Elizabeth Probst matched that 1169 and took second on the tiebreak. Blake, who had opened with a 585, ran six series between 97 and 99 for a 587 and moved past both.
Carlee Valenta finished fourth at 1168, a single point off the podium, with Emme Walrath fifth at 1167 and Katlyn Sullivan sixth at 1163.
Smallbore competition ran Aug. 21-23 as part of a USA Shooting Fall Selection Match that opened Aug. 19 at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Results feed USA Shooting’s athlete selection process, with points going toward national team rankings and future international nominations. See the full results at this link.
The USA Shooting 2026 Shotgun Selection Match at Fort Carson kicked off on Aug. 28. Learn more at usashooting.org.
