RI: NRA Four Position Sectional Results

Rhode Island 4P Gold Medalist Hap Rocketto and Silver medalist Brian Jyklka.

Rhode Island NRA Four Position Sectional
by Digby Hand

A dark and stormy night, with high winds that disrupted electrical service across the Ocean State, as well as the sleep disrupting change to Daylight Savings Time, that did little to deter 14 smallbore shooters from converging on the Cumberland Beagle Club for the 2010 Rhode Island Sectional of the National Indoor Smallbore Four Position Championship. Sponsored by the Rhode Island State Rifle and Revolve Association held on March 14th the match was graciously hosted by the Cumberland Club.

The anysight match started, as traditional, in the prone position and saw 12 shooters clean the match. Junior Nick Sautter, Erik Hoskins, Don Norris, and Hap Rocketto all posted 200s with 20 center shots and the match went to Sautter who punched out 12 shots of higher value.

It was anyone’s match going into standing where a real Donnybrook developed between Hudson Juniors Megan Polonsky, Brian Jylkka, and Mara Polonsky who were shooting irons and Sautter and Rocketto who used scopes. Mara Polonsky, Sautter, and Rocketto opened with 99s, Megan Polonsky a 98, and Jylkka carded a 97. The Polonsky sisters followed up with 98s, while Rocketto and Sautter posted 97s, Rocketto’s due to an errant eight. Jylkka nailed a perfect 100 on his second target, with eight center shots, and nearly took the match away from Megan Polonsky who managed three more center shots.

Shooters hang their standing targets.

At this point conventional wisdom would have ceded the match to either Polonsky or Jylkka because perfect scores are expected in the lower positions on the generous A-17 target. However, the rules prudently ignore conventional wisdom and require that the sitting and kneeling matches be shot.

Sitting has recently been considered a specialty of Rocketto. This is not just because his long suffering and ever patient bride Margaret has publically stated that “Around our house sitting is the only thing that Hap does with any enthusiasm or competence.” Rather it is the fact that he has carved out a bit of a niche for himself in the arcane position, holding four National Records on his haunches, the senior 50 foot anysight 20 shot record, the senior iron sight indoor 50 yard record and the open and senior anysight records at 50 yards indoors.

One must tread lightly if one wishes to trespass on his domain and not suffer. Hoskins boldly challenged the old man’s dominance and matched his 200-20, but fell short of Rocketto’s eight shots of higher value by four. Jylkka and Sautter each let one slip out leaving Jylkka and Rocketto tied while Sautter sat one back. The sisters Polonsky each coughed up enough points to drop them nearly out of contention along with Hoskins, each between six and nine points behind the leaders.

Kneeling is a specialty of the younger set and Sautter and Jylkka’s only hope was that they would go clean and the others would falter. Rocketto soldiered on, seemingly unfazed by the youth movement, and shot his third 200-20 of the day to win the kneeling match and tying the senior National Record in the process. Hoskins made a play for a comeback with a 198-13. That was a point behind Jennifer Smith’s 199 and he tied Mara Polonsky as both had 13 center shots. Sautter and Jylkka both shot identical 197-11s.

When all was added up, and the challenge period closed, in the individual match Rocketto held a commanding lead with a 796-70, tying his personal best in the event. Jylkka edged out Hoskins by a point, 793-56 to 792-65, for the silver medallion. Sautter found himself in fourth, and just out of the money with a 792-49. Mara Polonsky was high woman with a 789-49 while Jenn Sloan’s 784-60 earned her high service honors.

Team competition was limited to the Hudson New Hampshire Gold’s entry into the national competition. All began well, Jessica Levine and Megan Polonsky shot 100 with ten centers, Mara Polonsky dropped a center shot while Jylkka shot eight centers and two nines. Nonplussed, he rose to his feet in defiance and rifled off his second 100 of the day standing, this one with ten center shots! His teammates added a 99 and a pair of 98s. Still smarting from his prone he cleaned sitting while the rest of his team dropped five. Kneeling was his down fall as he shot his second 98-8 of the match creating, in the words of his team mates, a near perfect Palandromic score–it reading the same forward as well as backward. Based upon the 2009 results the New Hampshire score of 1581may well stand them in good stead.

The match could not have been held without the good offices of the Rhode Island State association, the generosity of the Cumberland Beagle Club, and the hard work of Ed Jaques who put in a 12 hour volunteer day setting up and dismantling the range, scoring and running the range.

Jenifer Sloan and Nick Sautter packing up after the match.

Complete results can be downloaded here: 2010-ri-4p-sectional (Excel 45KB)