The 2011 Rhode Island Outdoor Conventional Smallbore Prone State Championship and NRA Conventional Prone Regional
By Hap Rocketto
September 11, 2011 was a picture perfect late New England summer day as 17 competitors from four states spread their mats at the Newport Rifle Club to shoot a one day state prone championship/NRA Regional. The single day two match format has becoming increasingly popular since its introduction several years ago. The match is a standard 1600 course of fire with the Yard and Meter Matches shot with metallic sight and the Dewar and 100 Yard match allowed any sights.
The day opened at 50 yards and New Hampshire’s Brian Jylkka stepped out in front as match winner with a 400-33X. Right behind him was a pair of Bay State Rifleman, George Pantazelos, Wentworth College coach, with a 400-31X and 1600 Club member Erik Hoskins’ 400-29X. Junior Andrew Solomonides topped the combined Marksman/Sharpshooter class posting a 399-21X.
After the each relay all competitors moved three points right to insure that none would gain any advantage because of a difference in conditions prevalent on the heavily baffled Newport Range.
The Meter moved Erik Hoskins into a slim one point lead on the basis of his match winning 400-34X. He won on a tie breaking rule over Joe Graf’s identical score. Steve Rocketto, who is Distinguished with the service rifle, took third with a 400-27X. Nicole Ladd, a senior at Grasso Technical High School in Groton Connecticut, carded a 398-22X to win the combined class.
Most rifles mounted scopes for the Dewar Match, which was won by Pentazelos’400-33X. Shawn Carpenter, Ladd’s high school coach, was second with a clean and 32Xs while Graf pulled into third with a 400-31X just ahead of Jylkka’s perfect score with 29Xs. Solomonides took class again with a score of 399-21X.
Heading into the final match Graf and Jylkka were each down one point with Graf holding a five X lead. Rocketto was down two while Hoskins and Pantazelos were three down from being perfect. Ladd had a six point lead in the combined class.
Pantazelos made a strong bid for the overall match win with the only 400 at 100 yards but it was too little as Graf and Jylkka both hung up 399s, coming in second and third with 29X and 30Xs respectively. A 393-19X gave Ladd the combined class victory.
When the scores were tallied Graf came out in top with a 1598-124X, earning both regional and state titles. Jylkka was four Xs shy of Graf to take silver and high junior honors. The bronze medallion went to Pantazelos for his 1597-121X.
Hoskins was high combined Master/Expert with a score of 1595-115X. Ladd’s 1587-97X saw her win the high combined class. Elizabeth Dutton put together a 1568-68X to take the high junior marksman title.
Danielle Makucevich, a Newport junior, emerged the Rhode Island Junior Prone Champion shooting a 1586-89X along the way.
Complete results can be downloaded here: 2011-ri-conv-prone-regional (PDF, 25KB)
Congratulations Joe. Nice shooting.