The Western Brown High School JROTC Air Rifle Team competed in the All Army JROTC Service Championship Feb. 9-11. The Broncos traveled to Camp Perry’s Gary Anderson Range in Port Clinton, Ohio to compete in the Northeast Regional. The other two sites for the championship were fired in Anniston, Alabama and Sandy, Utah.
The Broncos sporter class air rifle team was one of 60 teams who qualified for the championship from the 339 teams from over 190 Army JROTC high schools during the national postal match shot during November and early December. A total of 1590 shooters competed in the JROTC National Postal Match. Going into the Service Championship, the Broncos had the 35th highest qualifying score (10th in the Northeast Region). This was the seventh year in a row the Western Brown rifle team had qualified for the Service Championship (National Championship)
The Broncos team members making the trip were seniors Skiler Marcum, Jessica Swart, Levi Jones, and Nathanial Hoevel along with sophomore Hayden Gulley.
The match consisted of 2 days of 3 x 20 (3-position) 10 meter targets with the top 8 shooters qualifying for a 10 shot standing final.
At the end of the 2-day competition, the Broncos’ strong performance earned a spot on the podium at the NE Regional site, placing 3rd behind 1st place Webb City High School of Missouri and Walhalla High School of South Carolina. This was the Broncos’ 2nd podium spot earned in the past 4 years (2020-1st place/NE Regional/13th in the nation)
As a result of their performance, the Broncos placed 15th among all Army JROTC teams competing in the Service Championship.
Leading the team was Skiler Marcum who placed 5th (27th nationally) after shooting a strong finals. Jessica Swart placed 15th (60th), Levi Jones placed 31st (103rd), Hayden Gulley placed 36th (118th) with Nathanial Hoevel placing 58th (167th) A total of 257 shooters competed in the Army JROTC Service Championship Sporter Class at the 3 Regional sites.
This is the 10th year Western Brown JROTC has had an air rifle team.
Senior Army Instructor of the Western Brown High School JROTC program is Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Gobin (U.S. Army retired).