Before the start of this year’s trap season two weeks ago, sophomore Carter Kern had never fired a gun, at least not a real one.
His classmate Deandra Doerr hadn’t either. Both joined Clipper trap because they had a friend who was on the team… and they wanted to take up hunting.
“Olivia Reinhardt and I talked about hunting in general and then my sister’s boyfriend and I too,” Kern said. “I had to take firearms safety anyway, so I thought trap would be good practice and it would be fun.”
For Doerr, her friend Kayla Bower was on the team for her second year, and also she wanted to take up hunting with her dad.
“He doesn’t hunt now, but we want to get into it together.
Neither did that great in their first practice rounds. Kern managed to knock down 18 of the 50 disks that zipped across the eastern skyline in the team’s second practice round last week. Doerr hit 20 targets in each of the two practice sessions she attended.
Wednesday was “reserve week,” where scores are only counted if a shooter misses a future shooting day. A strong wind at the Caribou Gun Club, mostly from behind, was tough on the shooters, said second-year head coach Brandon Ellickson.
“It made the birds dive.”
The wind was especially hard on Doerr. Besides affecting the flight paths of the clay disks, she had a difficult time keeping her hair out of her face and only managed to knock down eight. Kern, on the other hand, upped his score from a week ago by four targets.
There are 43 on the team this year, the same as many as in 2023, but Ellickson said it is a young group.
“We need to work with them, get them shooting a little better.”
Three sixth graders joined the team in their first year eligible. There are also 10 seventh graders, some out for the first time.
The trap team also includes four eighth graders, eight freshman, seven sophomores, six juniors and a trio of seniors.
Missing only one target each round, junior Nick Simonette had the highest reserve week score.
Senior Gabe Sullivan shot a 40. Sophomore Kaden Schmidt knocked down 39 targets.
Seventh grader Jake Mueller had the highest average of the two practices rounds, last week and the week before. He posted a 38 for reserve week, one less than his practice average.
With 37s were seventh grader Gauge Bock and junior Reid Knish. Shooting 36s were sophomore Judd Gibbs, eighth grader Brunson Gibbs and freshman Chase Bock.
Senior Adam Seeman connected with 34 targets. With 33s were senior Derek Miller and sophomores Max Esser and Grayson Tomaszewski.
Junior Blake Gibbs and seventh grader Tony Hollerich each shot a 31. With 30s were freshman Cole Stocker, junior Noah Hermel, eighth grader Aiden Giese and freshman Henry Boelter.
Seventh grader Urijah Hoheisel and eighth grader Zander Hoechst each brought down 29 clay disks, one more than seventh graders Blake Stocker and Jeremy Miller. Eighth grader Austin Anderley broke apart 27 clays.
Senior Dylan Zimmerman scored a 26. With 25s were sixth grader Tyler Smith and seventh graders Brayden Seeman and Nolan Schlaak. Freshmen Marshall Heldberg and Zayden Linder each shot a 29.
Achieving the best score among the girls, junior Kayla Bower shot a 23 as did freshman Charlie Maxfield.
Seventh grader John Ritchie hit 20 targets. Sixth grader Chase Roemhildt shot a 19.
Junior Kendra Zimmerman hit 17 targets. Freshman Oliver Starke, junior Abigail Osness and sixth grader Steve Giebel each scored a 15. Seventh grader Lucas Kortuem shot a 14.
Next week, competition shooting starts.
Also helping coach are Ben Miller, Tim Ellickson, Derek Stocker, Caleb Hankins and Tony Blaschko.
Above: Deandra Doerr squeezes off a shot. She took up trap for the first time this year.
Carter Kern on the firing line.