April 23, 2018

The Granbury Marine Corps JROTC rifle team competed in the 2018 Women’s National Junior Olympic Championships on April 18, 2018, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Makenzie Sheffield, a junior, led the Granbury trio after posting scores of 614.8 and 615.8 for a total of 1230.6.  She placed 29th among all competitors and seventh in her age category. Sheffield was closely followed by senior Kelcy McGrath, who finished 41st with 1227.9 points, and senior Trinity Hathaway finished in 98th place with 1207.0 points.

The championships were open to competitors born in 1998 and later. Scores fired in State Junior Olympic Championships were used to select the 183 shooters invited from among 2,408 competitors.

This year’s competition featured the new shooting format sanctioned by the International Shooting Sport Federation with women’s rifle and air pistol events now featuring the same number of shots (60) as men. The women also have 120 shows (40 in each of the three shooting positions) in three-position rifle as in the men’s competition.

Each participant earned the right to compete at the National Junior Olympics with only 16 percent of women’s three-position rifle athletes nationally receiving invitations to this prestigious match.

"Overall the ladies had a good match," said Lt. Col. Scott Casey, the Senior Marine Instructor. “This is one of the largest junior competitions in the country and provides college coaches a look at potential recruits, so there is a lot of pressure to do well. Considering most of the top competitors are currently shooting on a NCAA college team, our Lady Pirates held their own.”