Day One: The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400
The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 began today as one would expect the premier east coast 6400 to begin, hard and fast. In the first event, 40 shots with metallic sights at 50 yards, 16 perfect scores were recorded. Leading the pack was Reya Kempley, even though her training time was limited, poked out a 400-39X winning score. With a brace of national prone championships under his belt Kevin Nevius motored in right behind her posting a 38X clean. In third was Justin Tracy sitting on 36Xs. It was obvious from the start that hard holding would win the day.
When the mentally challenging 50 meter targets were hung the field opened up a bit but Kempley seemed unimpressed with a smaller X Ring at a longer distance and shot another 400, this time with 36Xs. Erin Gestl, enjoyed a home range advantage to take second, after a challenge, with a 400-33X. Dan Altman eked out a one X lead on Rhode Island’s Joe Graf when he slipped by with a 400-31X to Graf’s 30X, for third.
The Dewar test shooters’ skills at both short and long range. Tracy topped the field with a 400-36X. He was seriously challenged by Nevius’ second place 40-35X. Kempley kept up the pressure on the duo with a 400-31X effort.
Forty shots at 100 yards saw the leaderboard change very little. Tracy aced to course with 34Xs followed by Nevius, with an X count of 31. Kempley was knotted up with New York’s Terry Glenn at 440-28Xs but won the tie breaker for third.
Of the 16 shooters who began the day with perfect scores only Kempley maintained the momentum during the following 120 shots, finishing the day with a 1600-134X. Packed in behind her were Tracy, Nevius, Graf, Gestl, and Altman all with 1599s. Tracy, second, and Nevius, third, had better X counts, 141 and 138 respectively, which loom large in a four day event.
Day two will be another 160 shots with metallic sights and again challenge the hold and wind reading skills of the competitors.
