Upstart trapshooting team shoots well at State as season finishes up

Jayne Durnin/Staff Writer

The CFHS trapshooting team is halfway through an excellent season, but aim to end it even better.

According to their website, trap is the oldest of all clay target sports. A full squad consists of one shooter on each target thrower station with five shooters total. Shooters will only shoot single clay birds starting with the shooter on post one then moving on to posts two, three, four and five. Once each shooter has shot five targets at the station, he or she rotates to the next station. A complete round of trap consists of 25 targets, five at each station.

“I feel like we’re doing pretty good this year. Our teams are placing very well in the meets,” senior shooter Jonathan Smith said.

Head coach David Grund agreed.

“The first year shooters have shown some great improvement progress throughout the year, and the veteran shooters have been competing well also,” Grund said.

At the state meet on May 1, 70 teams competed. Out of those teams, the Cedar Falls Red Squad placed 6th, the white squad 19th, the black squad 25th, the orange squad 40th and the blue squad took 42nd to round out the results.

There are many trapshooters out this year with a total of 53.

“(When) keeping up with that many shooters, getting everyone on the same page and understanding what it will take to be competitive (is a priority),” Grund said.

Some tough competition for the team are Mason City, New Hampton, North Wood and Waterloo West.

“Our team goals are to do well at state competition and compete at a level to be considered one of the prominent trap clubs in the state,” Grund, who has been head coach for seven years, said.

The team seems well on its way to achieving those goals, as they did very well at their last meet.

“We just had a dual against Waterloo West last week. We placed first and third with squads and top two as individual shooters,” Grund said.

The next meet is a tri-meet with Waterloo West and Mason City at the Cedar Falls Gun Club at 4 p.m.