Hutchison, Lathrop top MAC championship shooters

Post date: Dec 14, 2011 4:31:26 PM

by Renee Thony/rthony@newsminer.com

Dec 04, 2011

Nicole Plummer of West Valley, right, competes during the Mid Alaska Conference Prep High School Rifle Championships Saturday morning, December 3, 2011 at the UAF Patty Center rifle range. Eric Engman/News-Miner

(from right) Max Delzer of Hutchison, Jana Armstrong of North Pole, and Connor Gilman of Lathrop compete during the Mid Alaska Conference Prep High School Rifle Championships Saturday morning, December 3, 2011 at the UAF Patty Center rifle range. Eric Engman/News-Miner

FAIRBANKS—The Hutchison rifle program has only been around for two years, and last year at the Mid Alaska Conference championships, the Hawks finished second. Their goal this year was to finish no lower than first place.

Mission accomplished.

Behind Gabe Stutz’s smallbore win, the Hawks finished atop the smallbore event with 2,115 points in this year’s MAC championships. Alaska high school rifle hands out awards to two teams as winners of the smallbore competition and the air rifle separately, but if this were the NCAA, Hutchison’s aggregate score would have put them atop all teams.

Lathrop, with help from Kasey Barnes, edged the Hawks by four points to earn the air rifle team title with a final score of 2,178.

Stutz, a 16-year-old sophomore, shot a 553 to beat out West Valley’s Cale MacDonald (550) and Jaimie Barnes from Lathrop (544) for the smallbore crown.

Last year, Stutz finished in the middle of the pack, making this year’s No. 1 finish even sweeter.

“I feel great,” Stutz said after being adorned with his gold medal. “I just worked on correcting my position and stuff from last year.”

Nathaniel Manning and Blaze Brooks had top-10 finishes for Hutchison to aid the Hawks to their team title, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.

“We all worked hard, and we deserved it,” Stutz said. “Every team was out to get us since we got second last year, and we held them off.”

West Valley’s Tyler Brose and Nicole Plummer finished ninth and 10th in the smallbore competition to help secure West Valley’s third-place finish with 2,092 points. Lathrop was second in the event with 2,096 points with three top-10 finishers, including Jaimie Barnes.

Kasey Barnes shot a 559 in the air rifle portion of the championships to earn the gold medal, fending off West Valley’s Brose (556) and Anna Quist (555).

“I feel pretty good. I was just trying to stay calm and not let my nerves get to me,” Barnes, also a sophomore, said. “It’s exciting to do so well especially up against such good shooters.”

Jaimie Barnes and Lorelie Stanfield finished fourth and eighth in the event to hand Lathrop the air rifle title.

Hutchison finished second in the event with 2,174 points, getting top-10 finishes from Stutz (fifth) and Manning (sixth). West Valley was third with 2,144 points. MacDonald finished seventh to round out the Wolfpack’s shooters to finish in the top 10.

“This is a good improvement for us,” Kasey Barnes said about her team’s win. “West Valley’s been at the top for years, so it’s nice for us to be on top for once.”

The championships saw 18 shooters pick up personal bests, with Manning as the only shooter to reach personal bests in both the smallbore and air rifle matches.

In addition to Hutchison, Lathrop and West Valley, North Pole and Delta Junction also competed in the conference championships, which ran Friday and Saturday.

The Patriots finished fourth in both smallbore and air rilfe, while the Huskies placed fifth in both events.

Contact staff writer Renee Thony at 459-7583.