CT: Swanson Memorial Match Results

27th David L. Swanson Memorial Match

 

In pursuit of excellence and glory, juniors from across Connecticut filled the Quaker Hill Rod and Gun Club rifle range on December 3rd and 4th at the 27th annual David L. Swanson Memorial Match.

Sub Junior competitors fired a 30 shot prone match on the A-17 target with Kyle Kutz, representing the Cos Cob Juniors, posted a prefect 300, tying the match record set by Emma Acampora. Metacon’s Kayley Pasko shot a 298 for second while Blue Trail’s Sydney Hawke grabbed the third place spot with a 297.

Stratford Police Athletic League shooters swept Class A with Taylor Niemiec, 296, Ashley Gillis, 294, and Emma Sturrock, 294 topping the class. Class B was taken by yet another SPAL athlete, Shane Burtob who carded a 270. Taking advantage of the home filed Quaker Hill’s Lucas Johnson was second, 264, followed by Ava King, 261, of Metacon. Quaker Hill struck again with a Class C win by Lydia Gervais, 229. Two of her team mates, Christopher Andrews, and James Charpentier, 226 and 223 respectively.

The SPAL Wingnuts, Niemiec, Sturrock, Burtob, and Ashley Gills teamed up for an 1154 match winning score. Billy Wolfe, Amanda Grano, Liam Ward, and Tyler Daniels teamed up as Quaker Hill Green for second place. Blue Trail Gold, Hawke, Max Rook, David Kuhn, and Mason Young-Lyman, the fourth generation of Lyman rifleman who made his maiden appearance on an award winning team, took third.

Kutz stayed on the line after his run of 30 sub junior tens to shoot the junior match. He shot an addition ten tens prone before losing two points kneeling, ending his perfect string. Putting the two nines out of his mind he stood up and shot a 97 standing to put together his second match winning score of the day, a 295. Sixty consecutive shots in less than 90 minutes had garnered him two match titles. Hope Kavulich, SPAL, harried Kutz. Tied going into standing Kutz out pointed her 97 to 96 pushing her into second. Metacon’s Pasko gave both a good run and ended up third with a 293.

Class A was a nail biter with Blue Trail’s Ryan McConnell and Cos Cob’s Kaitlyn Kutz knotted up with 292s. McConnel’s 96 standing sealed the deal for first. Laura Milukus, another Cos Cob shooter, ended up in third with a 290.

Trisha Wolfe, shooting for Quaker Hill, was the to Class B competitor. Her 260 bested a pair of 259s put up by a pair of Avon Old Farms riflemen, Jimmy Li and Wyatt Reller. Class C honors fell to Blue Trail’s Ryan Sponauer, 211, and a duo from Grasso Tech, Robert Kelly and Andrew Hill shooting a 210 and a 2016.

Cos Cob, the Kutz kids, Milukus, and Stephanie Allan outpointed Blue Trail Gold, Gillian Reardon, Scott Condo, Tucker Fowler, and Harrison Callahan by seven points, 1165-1158, to win the position team match. The SPAL Chuckleheads Kavulich, Meg Wilcoxson, Sophia Cuozzo, and Vincent Lacobelle pulled into third with a 1136. Xavier Team Five, Chris Sokol, Jake LaGrace, Con Marrinan, and Branson Hawke led the Class A teams. The Montville High School team of Dan Hollingsworth, Angelica Rodriquez, Tanner Driscoll, and B. Andrews were the best Class B squad.

The first Swanson match was held in 1963 and continued, uninterrupted until 1986 when issues with the Manchester range caused a halt. It was revived in 2015 to replace the venerable Middlebury Match which ended it successful run in 2015. It has proved to be a popular event drawing about 130 junior annually, making it one of the largest junior events in southern New England.

2016-ct-swanson (PDF, 108KB)

About Hap Rocketto

Hap Rocketto is a Distinguished Rifleman with service and smallbore rifle, member of The Presidents Hundred, and the National Guard’s Chief’s 50. He is a National Smallbore Record holder, a member of the 1600 Club and the Connecticut Shooters’ Hall Of Fame. He was the 2002 Intermediate Senior Three Position National Smallbore Rifle Champion, the 2012 Senior Three Position National Smallbore Rifle Champion a member of the 2007 and 2012 National Four Position Indoor Championship team, coach and captain of the US Drew Cup Team, and adjutant of the United States 2009 Roberts and 2013 Pershing Teams. Rocketto is very active in coaching juniors. He is, along with his brother Steve, a cofounder of the Corporal Digby Hand Schützenverein. A historian of the shooting sports, his work appears in Shooting Sports USA, the late Precision Shooting Magazine, The Outdoor Message, the American Rifleman, the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s website, and most recently, the apogee of his literary career, pronematch.com.
This entry was posted in Results. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *