Sports Shooting Places Third at ACUI Conference Championship

WAUKEE, Iowa–The RedTail Sports Shooting team competed at the ACUI Greater Midwest Conference Championship on March 7-8.

Hawkeye was the only community college in the competition and went up against some of the top four-year universities in the country. Despite this, the RedTails still placed third place overall out of 10 teams, hitting team hit 1,444 birds out of a possible 1,750.

Sophomore Natalie Koepke led the way for the RedTail women, hitting 90 out of 100 birds to finish 11th out of 32 competitors.

The team also had two men finish in the top four of their division of 67 shooters. Braxton Childers finished fourth overall, hitting 97 targets. Jake Maakestad hit 98 targets in regulation, which led to a two-round overtime. In the first overtime, Maakestad hit all 25 targets. During the second round, Maakestad missed two targets, while his opponent only missed one. He finished in third place.

"We did really well," said head coach Troy Emly, "For [us] to earn third place High-Overall amongst our competition is quite a testament to the competitiveness of our student-athletes."

Amelia Vetter faced an incredible amount of adversity early in the competitions. Within the first 10 shots of the tournament, the shotgun that she has trained with for years broke. Vetter finished the rest of the tournament with a backup shotgun that she had never used before. Even with this added challenge, Vetter still managed to outshoot many opponents.

"Amelia showed her competitiveness and strength [...] and I am so proud of [her]," said Emly of Vetter's adversity.