Submitted by William Dutton
The 2013 New Hampshire Junior Olympic Rifle Championships came to an exciting close this past week as we wrapped up the Smallbore Rifle Championship (Dec 8th and 20th) and Air Rifle Championship (Dec 22nd).
For the women, Lacey Hamelin of Chesterfield took the gold in smallbore dominating the field (543) and beating out Elizabeth Dutton of Derry, the silver medalist, by 20 points (523). Bailey Urbach of Hudson secured the bronze medal with a score of 494.
The men’s smallbore championship was shot over two different dates (Dec 8th and 20th). Joe Nikiforakis of Swanzey took an early lead shooting a solid score of 553 followed by Andrew Solomonides of Gilsum with a 530. We had to wait until the final relay on Dec 20th to see if there were any changes to the standings. Alex Martin of Swanzey was able to edge into the lead and secured the gold medal firing an excellent score of 558. Joe held on for the silver and J3 Zach Wambsganss of Hudson shot a personal best 535 edging out Andrew for the bronze.
The Air Rifle championship was held on December 22nd and there was plenty of excitement to be had. Joe Nikiforakis was able to hold off Alex Martin and was able to secure the gold medal shooting a 572. Alex was able to secure the silver medal shooting a 563. Andrew Solimonides gave Jarred Dassler of Salem a run for this money but came up short by just two points. Jarred rounded out the men’s medalists with a personal best score of 559 taking home the bronze.
The Women’s Air Rifle match had three competitors within 6 points of each other. Grace Hackler of Keene shot a 351 but it wasn’t enough as Bailey Urbach (silver) edged out Lacey Hamelin (bronze) by a single point, 357 to 356. Youngster Elizabeth Dutton dominated the women’s field shooting a 371 and taking home the gold! Elizabeth was quoted as saying “On my last shot, I was so excited I couldn’t stop shaking! I don’t know how but I shot a 10!”.
I’d like to thank the staff from the Hudson Fish and Game Junior Rifle team for their assistance running the match, the competitors for traveling from far and wide to compete and of course the parents for the encouragement and support of our kids.
Complete match results can be downloaded here: 2013-nh-jorc (PDF, 256KB)
