MARENGO, Ohio — Mike Carter fired 320 record shots across four days at the Cardinal Shooting Center and finished three points clear of the man behind him.
Carter’s 6389-517X won the 2026 NRA National Smallbore Conventional Prone Championship, the Critchfield Trophy plaque, the top cash prize, a Walther pistol and a National Championship Daisy Red Ryder. Ron Wigger closed at 6386-501X for second. Michelle Bohren was another point back at 6385-477X for third, which put the entire podium inside four points.
Carter picked up three more awards on the way: High Senior and the Sam Bond Trophy plaque, High Civilian and the William Schweitzer Trophy plaque, plus High Master.
He built it on the metallic days. His 3193-246X tied Wesley Shumaker for the metallic grand aggregate title and took it on center shots, 246 to 234. Any sights went a different direction—Cameron Zwart won that half of the championship with a 3197-264X, three Xs ahead of Wigger’s matching 3197-261X. Carter came fourth in the any sight aggregate and it was enough, because nobody who beat him there had shot metallic as well.
Ties Everywhere
Any sights produced almost nothing but ties. Zwart and Wigger both fired 3197. Robert Head, Carter and Mike O’Connor all landed on 3196, split 273 Xs to 271 to 235. Stephen Angeli and Denise Loring both posted 3192, and Chris Rakyta and Joe Graf both had 3187.
Five placings in the top 12 came down to center shots, and the grand aggregate inherited the pattern. Head and Shumaker tied at 6381 for fourth and fifth, Head taking it 494 to 466. Then came a three-way knot at 6379—Zwart at 472 Xs, Rakyta at 468 and O’Connor at 445, finishing sixth, seventh and eighth in that order.
Nine shooters finished within 24 points of each other after 320 shots apiece.
Wigger took High Military Veteran and the John Grubar Trophy plaque. Bohren, the High Woman, won the Remington Trophy plaque and added High Intermediate Senior and the Black Hawk Trophy plaque.
Bret Higgins fired 6321-345X for High Expert and the Charlie Rogers Memorial Trophy plaque. Ruby Harris was High Junior at 6296-318X. Avery Hines took High Intermediate Junior with a 6312-346X, worth the Stark Memorial Prone Trophy, SK ammunition and a NRA National Championship Red Ryder. Bob Yakushi rounded out the Expert class awards.
James Eu of Australia fired the only perfect score of the championship—a 1600 on the second any sight day, 160 shots without dropping a point.
Eu won the Dick Danik High Visitor trophy on a four-day aggregate of 6352-414X. He also served as witness for both international postal matches, and during the competitor meeting he set up a conference call with Australia that produced an invitation for American smallbore shooters to come compete there.
NRA Lones Wigger Iron Man Trophy
Mike O’Connor took the NRA Lones Wigger Iron Man Trophy with a combined 8683-537X, becoming the first shooter to win it twice. Ten competitors entered both the Three-Position and Prone championships, several of them juniors.
The trophy itself—the gold-plated Anschütz that Dieter Anschütz presented to Lones Wigger and Wigger later donated to the NRA—was on hand for the first time in years. Chief Range Officer Clyde Furr made the presentation. O’Connor’s haul included a National Championship Red Ryder, a Walther pistol, a Lapua lot testing certificate and a cash award.
F-Class: Pagliari Goes Back-to-Back
Sam Pagliari won the four-day F-Class Smallbore Prone 6400 Championship by 12 points, defending the title he took in 2025.
His 6382-528X came off four consistent days—1596, 1595, 1597, 1594—and never dropped below second on any of them. Pagliari won the Marianne Jensen Driver Trophy plaque, a Daisy Red Ryder, a cash award and a Lapua lot testing certificate, and he took High Master, High Senior and High Civilian.
Danny Biggs finished second at 6370-496X and fired the highest single day anyone managed in F-Class, a 1598-128X on day three. Thomas Hittle was third at 6367-492X and won High Veteran. James Hittle, Jr., took fourth at 6364-489X and Jim Murphy fifth at 6363-489X, the two of them separated by a point on identical center-shot totals.
Michele Medige finished sixth at 6355-466X as High Woman, and she closed the championship by winning the final day outright with a 1595-121X—the only day of the four that Pagliari didn't lead. Daniel Pagliari was seventh at 6351-466X.
Ivan Rakyta took High Expert at 6277-336X and did something none of the others did: he improved every single day, going 1561, 1566, 1573 and finishing on a personal-best 1577-89X.
Weather and Staff
Conditions cooperated for most of the tournament. The second any sight day came in overcast and a little windy with a high of 84, and the only real weather of the championship was a single afternoon of scattered thunderstorms during the Three-Position matches.
Awards were presented by NRA Board members Charlie Brown, Amanda Suffecool, Edie Fleeman and Debbie Lyman, along with Smallbore Committee Chair Patti Clark. Board member Rob Beckman also attended, making this the largest contingent of Board members ever present at the ceremony.
Competitors singled out the match staff: Chief Statistician Mary Furr, Match Director Joseph Miller, line officers Clyde Furr and Greg Tomsen, tower announcer Roger Steitz, Referee Patti Clark, Chief Scorer Edie Fleeman and a scoring crew of Jane Shumaker, Debbie Lyman, Emily Caruso, Barbara Hampson-Keller, Jeffery Doerschler and Margaret Langfield.
| Conventional Prone Grand Aggregate — Match 100 | ||
| COMPETITOR | SCORE | |
| 1 | Mike Carter | 6389-517X |
| 2 | Ron Wigger | 6386-501X |
| 3 | Michelle Bohren | 6385-477X |
| 4 | Robert Head | 6381-494X |
| 5 | Wesley Shumaker | 6381-466X |
| 6 | Cameron Zwart | 6379-472X |
| 7 | Chris Rakyta | 6379-468X |
| 8 | Mike O’Connor | 6379-445X |
| 9 | Stephen Angeli | 6377-466X |
| 10 | James Miller | 6365-417X |
| Prone Any Sight Aggregate — Match 121 | ||
| COMPETITOR | SCORE | |
| 1 | Cameron Zwart | 3197-264X |
| 2 | Ron Wigger | 3197-261X |
| 3 | Robert Head | 3196-273X |
| 4 | Mike Carter | 3196-271X |
| 5 | Mike O’Connor | 3196-235X |
| F-Class SBR 6400 Grand Aggregate — Match 300 | ||
| COMPETITOR | SCORE | |
| 1 | Sam Pagliari | 6382-528X |
| 2 | Danny Biggs | 6370-496X |
| 3 | Thomas Hittle | 6367-492X |
| 4 | James Hittle, Jr. | 6364-489X |
| 5 | Jim Murphy | 6363-489X |
| 6 | Michele Medige | 6355-466X |
| 7 | Daniel Pagliari | 6351-466X |
| 8 | Ivan Rakyta | 6277-336X |
Learn more about NRA National Championships at competitions.nra.org.
