The USA Shooting Trap Team captured four medals at the 2024 Shotgun Championship of the Americas (CAT) Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, medaling in four out of the five events they participated in. The competition began February 29 and will run through March 9.
Derrick Mein, 2022 World Champion, won a gold medal in Men’s Trap after besting Eduardo Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic, 47-44. Mein earned his spot in the final by shooting a qualification score of 120 out of 125.
Mein, a Tokyo 2020 Olympian, also saw international success in 2023. He earned a total of four medals at International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) competitions last year, including a gold medal in the Men’s Trap Team event at the 2023 World Championships alongside Will Hinton and Derek Haldeman.
Mein added a second medal to his 2024 CAT Games count when he helped the Men’s Trap Team take home a bronze medal. The trio of Mein, Ramsey Bodeen and Matthew Killeen fired a combined score of 206 out of 225 to land in the bronze medal match. The three U.S. shooters earned their Men’s Trap Team bronze medal after defeating the Peruvian team by four points, 6-2.
As for Matthew Killeen, he made his international competition debut this year at the CAT Games. Killeen, along with U.S. teammate Ramsey Bodeen, landed their first international medals at the competition in the Dominican Republic this week.
Ryann Phillips earned a bronze medal in Women’s Trap after outshooting teammate Carey Garrison in the final, 30-27. Three USA Shooting athletes qualified for the final—Phillips, Garrison and Ida Brown. The trio of U.S. shooters made up half of all the finalists.
For Phillips, her Women’s Trap bronze medal marks her second international medal of 2024. She earned another bronze in the Women’s Trap event at the ISSF Rabat World Cup back in January. Phillips is currently ranked number five in the world for Women’s Trap.
Phillips, Garrison and Brown went on to win the gold medal in the Women’s Trap Team event. The team earned themselves a spot in the final after shooting the highest overall combined score of 205 out of 225. With a final score of 7-3, the Americans beat the Mexican team, who earned silver as the runner-up team.
The USA Shooting Skeet Team competes next at the 2024 CAT Games, March 6-8.
The entire U.S. shotgun team has already racked up eight international medals in the three months of 2024. Last year, the team brought home an impressive 48 medals internationally, six from the 2023 World ISSF Championship.
After the 2024 CAT Games, USA Shooting shotgun athletes will head to Tucson, Arizona, for the U.S. Olympic Trials For Shotgun Shooting, Part Two. Then, the entire U.S. Trap and Skeet Olympic Team will qualify for Paris at the competition. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place July 26 to August 11, 2024.
See the full results of the 2024 Shotgun CAT Games at the ISSF website.
Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.
