Richards marksmanship team wins third straight match

The marksmanship team from Richards High School last week won its third straight match, edging Shawnee Mission North High School NJROTC 822.4 to 820.5 in the National Air Rifle League. The U.S. Navy JROTC program from Richards has competed in this league for years.

Richards competes in a league comprised of schools from around the country who compete against each other each week. To date Richards has a 3-2 record after a slow start with an almost all first year group of Marksmen. They have won their last 3 competitions as the team is beginning to shoot more consistently in the 200 + range for the 3x10 competition (30 shots).

Bulldog Company Richards NJROTC was led by, Abigail Schrode who shot a 226.7. The remaining contributing members were Kylie Schaefer, Natalie Hajer, and Leland Murphy.

Next Richards will compete against Heritage Classical Christian Academy from Fenton, MO.

These two teams are competing in the Distinguished Division of the Orion National Air Rifle League. Sponsored by the Orion Scoring System, the league is a national team league for high school teams and junior rifle clubs. The league has two parts. An 8 week regular season going on now, followed by a single game Conference Title Game for the top two teams in each conference.

In each game the teams compete in what is known as a Three-Position Air Rifle match. The match is modeled after Olympic Rifle competitions but adapted to high school age athletes. Each athlete will shoots 10 shots in three different shooting positions, prone, standing, and kneeling. Each shot is worth a maximum of 10.9 points. The sum of points scored in the 30 shots is the athlete's total. The team score is comprised of the best four athletes from each team.

More achievements by Bulldog Company:

Captain Abby Shrode posted a personal best 460 out of 600 and the second highest ever recorded 3x20 score for HLR's marksmanship team. She posted this score at the NJROTC Area 3 Air Rifle Championships held at the Civilian Marksmanship Program automated scoring range in Port Clinton, Ohio on 5 and 6 November.

Freshman Natalie Hajer posted the second best score for the team with a 380. The competition involved shooting 20 shots in the prone (laying down), standing and kneeling positions. The team is also competing in the Orion Virtual Air Rifle League again this year.