RHS trap team shoots at Northwoods Invitational

HARSHAW — The Rhinelander High School trap team shot in the 17-team Northwoods Invitational May 15-17 in Harshaw and Minocqua. An event that offered opportunities for athletes to shoot trap singles, trap doubles, skeet, and sporting clays, the competition was split between the Harshaw Sports Club and the Minocqua Gun Club to accommodate all athletes from 17 teams. 

Trap singles, trap doubles and skeet disciplines were shot at the Minocqua Gun Club, while the Harshaw Sports Club had a sporting clays course and additional trap singles. 

“The greatest thing is that we’re getting more kids involved,” Joe Hein, the Harshaw Sports Club President, said. “Seeing that is a bright spot, because, you know, this is the future of gun clubs, this is the future of outdoor sporting in the state of Wisconsin, is the kids.”

With a growth of athletes competing in the Northwoods Invitational in each of its eight years of existence, the invite expanded to the Lakeland trap team as another host at the Minocqua Gun Club. 

“Our intent is not to let this go away, but just to further the expansion by the increased amount of facilities now, with the Minocqua Gun Club’s support through the Lakeland trap team,” Hein said. 

Sporting clays

At the Harshaw Sports Club on May 16, the Rhinelander High School trap team competed in the 100-target sporting clays course. 

Lola Beach broke 63 of 100 targets on the way to a first place finish in the senior/jv division for girls’ sporting clays. She also tied the highest reverse run in the category with five. 

Scores tally a “reverse run” to settle ties. A reverse run is the consecutive targets a shooter hit prior to their last miss. This means that a higher reverse run would take the tie-breaker because it means the shooter hit more consecutive targets later in the course.

Rhinelander took fifth as a team in the sporting clays event in the non-collegiate category, which takes the top three scorers from each team to combine a final tally for the team’s scoring. 

In the teams final score, Isaac Mickevicius contributed an 85, Garett Schreiber a 74, and Paul Denis a 69, for a grand total of 228. Lakeland was right behind the Hodags with a score of 226. The winning team for the non-collegiate sporting clays discipline tallied a score of 252. 

Mickevicius’s 85 was also good for a third place finish in the individual senior/varsity division standings, only eight broken targets away from tying first place.

Trap singles

Rhinelander also shot trap singles in Harshaw on May 17. 

Finn Thorsen only missed 10 targets, finishing eighth in the senior/jv division with a 90 of 100. A reverse run of six gave him the tie-breaking advantage over Erik Huybrecht of Drummond who also shot 90, but had a reverse run of five.  

Joshua Haselton finished highest for Rhinelander boys in the senior/varsity category with a score of 87 and reverse run of five. 

Beach was one place away from the podium in girls’ senior/jv trap singles, scoring an 82. Hailey Novak was seventh with a 68. 

Maliya Tosi broke 70 in the girls’ senior/varsity division. 

Blake Richard may be reached via email at [email protected].