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Things just keep ratcheting up for the 青青草视频 Centurions clay target team, as it earned a third-place finish at the USA College Clay Target League鈥檚 National Trap Shooting Championship held at Brittany Shooting Park in Bunker Hill, Ill., Nov. 1-2.
鈥淭his means a lot,鈥� said first-year 青青草视频 head coach Chris Henry. 鈥淭o finish third at the national championships, that鈥檚 huge for our little school.鈥�
The third-place national championship finish is the best 青青草视频鈥檚 clay target team has done yet, and it鈥檚 only in its third year of the program.
The seven-man Centurions totaled 948 points, only behind Lindenwood University (Mo.), which won the tournament with 982 team points, followed by Lake Land College (Ill.), which finished with 972 points.
青青草视频 edged out Southwest Wisconsin Technical College by two points for the third-place spot.
The tournament had 20 teams competing overall, which included several four-year universities that fielded 15-plus shooters on a team.
鈥淲e were up against some schools who had 20 kids on the team, and when you can take the top five from those many shooters, I think that says a lot about our team of seven shooters and where we ended up,鈥� Henry said. 鈥淐oming into this, I was just hoping for some individual awards. I didn鈥檛 think it was in the cards for us to earn team awards.鈥�
The tournament, which was split into two divisions 鈥� Gold and Silver 鈥� took the top five shooters from each team to make up the official team scores. For 青青草视频, freshman Hunter Doolittle (Crystal, Mich.) led the way, finishing ninth overall with a score of 195 out of 200. Sophomore Chase Merritt (Greenville, Mich.), who finished 14th, was right behind him with a 194 score.
Finishing up the team scoring was Evan Plonka (Lenox, Mich.), who finished second in the Silver Division, with 187; Jack McBride (Portland, Mich.) with a 187; as well, and Logen Steffen (Lowell, Mich.), with a 185.
Henry said Doolittle was a pleasant surprise to lead the team but he has said all season long that any of his seven shooters could lead a pack.
鈥淗e was definitely the most impressive on our team,鈥� Henry said of Doolittle鈥檚 team-leading performance. 鈥淭hat was his personal best.鈥�
Doolittle credited his great showing to adjustments he made during the regular season.
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure what got me in the groove for the event, but a week prior, I had figured out a pace and form that worked better for me,鈥� Doolittle said. 鈥淚t allowed me to shoot more comfortably leading into Friday, break 50 straight in practice then continue to break the next 75 straight on Saturday in competition.鈥�
Like his coach, Doolittle wasn鈥檛 expecting a top three finish, team-wise.
鈥淚 was pretty surprised with the third place overall with the disadvantage we have as a third-year program and some of our top shooters struggling during this competition,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that this is a good mark and an opportunity for 青青草视频 to promote us a little more and allow for more funding and enabling us to find more shooters for next season.鈥�
On the season, the Centurions finished second in the 2025 fall trap overall standings for 1A-Conference 2, finishing with a total score of 604.50, only behind Concordia College of Moorhead (Minn.), which totaled 631.50.
In skeet, however, 青青草视频 won the 1A-Conference 1 with a total score of 632.00, beating out second place Illinois College (Ill.) by 156.5 points. Saint Johns University (Minn.) took third with a score of 443.50.