The Mountain Grove High School Air Rifle Range after Being Set Up

The Mountain Grove MCJROTC hosted its inaugural Panther Throw-Down Shoulder to Shoulder Air Rifle Match the 23^rd and 24^th of October.  Six schools and over 60 cadets participated in the match, one team coming as far away as Des Moines, Iowa.  With little time allotted prior to first shooters arriving, the Mountain Grove Rifle Team cadets transformed the high school gym into a regulation shooting range with 16 target lanes.  There were two teams shooting Friday night with the remainder shooting on Saturday.  The Mountain Grove MCJROTC Rifle Team put on a good showing for its second match of the year. Cadet Sgt Cody Hicks led the experienced team with a score of 484 with Cadet Tyler Young of the Basic team with a score of 298.  The match was held in order to exchange marksmanship techniques and to foster the sportsmanship and camaraderie of the sport overall.  The air rifle competition was sanctioned as a Cup Match by the Civilian Marksmanship Program and the top ten percent of shooters earned points towards their distinguished shooting badge.  CMP sanctioned matches are similar in nature to the air rifle matches held in the summer Olympics and shooters have the opportunity to earn college scholarships. In the Experienced Division, Ozark High School AJROTC captured 1^st   place with a team score of 2153 and Tyler Ferguson of Ozark HS took high aggregate shooter with a score of 547. Forsyth High School MCJROTC took 1^st place in the Basic Division with a team score of 1783 and Lucas Rohrbaugh of North High School MCJROTC was the division’s high aggregate shooter with the score of 525.

(Left) Willard HS NJROTC and Forsyth HS MCJROTC Cadets firing in the standing position.  (Right) Mountain Grove MCJROTC Cadets firing from the kneeling position.