Cardinal cadets host Turkey Shoot meet, win many of the medals themselves

Webb City JROTC cadets participated in their first rifle meet of the season Friday – and hosted it.

Over three days last weekend, 200 shooters on 48 teams representing 21 schools and three states shot pellets with air rifles at digital targets during the annual Turkey Shoot in the Webb City High School firing range.

Shooters competed in two novice categories, along with experienced and precision categories.

Lt. Col. Dustin Elder, senior army instructor, said this is the first year that the Cardinal Battalion has fielded a precision team, which is outfitted with new gear and has been practicing for a year. That team took second place, and team member Abigail Riggs won first in the precision shooter individual category.

Webb City’s experienced team won first place, as did one of the new shooter teams.

Each round lasts an hour and a half, with shooters being scored on their shots in three positions, kneeling, prone and standing.

There are 20 targets, which allow up to five teams of four to compete at the same time.

As a pellet strikes the target, a camera takes a picture of where it landed. Before digital targets, they had to be scored by hand, notes Elder. Now they use the Athena Electronic Scoring System.

In addition to saving time at the end of each round, it immediately displays each shooter’s shots on monitors.

As the host team, Webb City cadets are responsible for changing the targets after each round.

They’ll be the hosts again when the state championships are held here in February.

Webb City shooters earning individual medals were: Johnathan Tatum, first, open category; Katelyn Miller, second, open; Abigail Riggs, first, precision.