Better that two dozen of New England’s finest junior shooters are ether on their way, have arrived, or packing to head west to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and the 2016 Junior Olympic Rifle Championships (JORC).
The JORC is the culmination of USA Shooting’s National Junior Olympic program which provides young competitions year-round Olympic style competition. Junior shooters are able to participate in State Competitions sanctioned by USA Shooting, allowing them the chance to receive an invitation to shoot at the National Junior Olympic Championships hosted by USA Shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The program serves as an important element of our pipeline development system in promoting the shooting sports. Junior Olympic goals are to allow the skilled junior athletes to obtain National competitive experience for future development. The program also serves as an opportunity to appoint the top finishers to the National Junior Team.
This year all of the New England states are sending delegations with Massachusetts having the largest group sending Jared Desrosiers, Ricky Miller, Kristopher Blaney, Benjamin Pacek, Brenden Seitz, Tyler Lefebvre, Matthew Lazarski, Mackenzie Conant, Aliya Butt, Maggie Flanders.
Six shooters will represent Connecticut; Eric Sloan, Tyler Glynn, Scott Condo, Kyle Kutz, James Henderson, and Kaitlyn Kutz. Tiny Rhode Island sends Alex Muzzioli, Marcus Mojica, Matt Pemberton, Rebecca Green, and Ruby Gomes.
A quartet of Granite state shooters made up of Tobin Sanctuary, Andrew Solomonides, Elizabeth Dutton, and Bailey Urbach will be there along with Matthew Wright and Julia Hatch who are neighbors from Vermont.
The New England contingent is rounded out by Brandon Bryer, Shelby Varney, and Sarah Schnupp from Maine.