"Flowing Wells High School's JROTC Rifle Team finally owns a state title.

The award had eluded the rifle team for a decade, but that changed when Flowing Wells  prevailed over 11 teams at the state championship Saturday at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix.

"We weren't shooting as well as we had been shooting, but the kids pulled together at the end," said retired Maj. Bob De Witt, Army JROTC instructor at Flowing Wells. "They got the job done."

Competing for Flowing Wells were team captain Cody Larger, Alexandrea "Alex" Provine, Tyler Rico and Rudy Teyechea.

Larger and Provine attend Canyon del Oro High School, but participate in the JROTC, which stands for Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, at Flowing Wells because it is not offered at their school.

Brett Coldron was the team's alternate.

Rico emerged as the event's top shooter with a score of 553 of a possible 600.

Rico was relieved when it was finally over and Flowing Wells had been crowned champion.

"I was pretty confident we would place well," he said.

Saturday's final required competitors to shoot at targets 10 meters away from standing, prone and kneeling positions.

Competitors use air rifles that shoot tiny pellets.

Competition at the state finals was crowded with some of the state's top shooters, and Larger said it was awesome to be there.

He did his best to remain composed after learning Flowing Wells had won.

"I was so happy. Of course, I had to maintain my professionalism, but once we left the facility we were able to get off those loud cheers," he said. "It was an incredible feeling to do something like that."

Flowing Wells will next travel to Camp Perry, Ohio, in February to compete in the national Army JROTC championship."

Congratulations Tylor Rico and the Flowing Wells team!

Thanks to everyone for great USA Shooting Junior Olympic matches

Congratulations to Meike Drewell, Cody Nelson, Zach Misino, and Alex Munoz who all shot in their first matches.

Special congratulations to Tyler Rico from Tucson for a smallbore score that qualifies for the USA Shooting National Championship in Colorado Springs.  Tyler was also 1^st place Overall Junior at the NRA High Power Rifle Championship this summer at Camp Perry.

Ed

To all:

We waited a whole year for an Arizona resident to win the Arizona State Championship only to be robbed once again!

I guess when you have one of the finest ranges in the United States, located in an area that has awesome weather in the winter time, you are going to get a bunch of folks jumping at the chance to get out of the cold for a week and do some shooting.

Once again the "snowbirds" denied the locals from winning the Arizona State Scope Championship.

Last year "Duke" Venturino and his side kick "Snake Hips" Tompkins blew into town and took the "Cactus Trophy" back to Montana with them after thawing out in the Arizona sun.

Well this year it was "Snake Hips" Ted's turn to take advantage of us and he did so very handily by shooting a 33X40 to win the Arizona State Scope Championship. "Snake Hips" and the "Duke" are really having fun coming to Arizona and "having their way" with us. We enjoy their company, but I'm hoping that next year someone from Arizona puts a little rain on their parade!

Second Overall was Oregon shooter Kerry Kegel with a  32X40. 

Kerry had to win the Second Overall trophy by out shooting 4 time National Mid-range Champion Chip Mate in a shoot-off.

Chip and Lee Bumbalow were the only two Arizona shooters in the top ten in the scope match this year. Numerous trips from Payson to the Ben Avery range to practice with a scope paid off for Lee. He shot a 29X40 which was good for 7^th place overall and the AA class win.

Shoot-offs were the word of the day as 2^nd and 3^rd Overall, 2^nd and 3^rd Master, 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd AAA, 2^nd and 3^rd AA, and 2^nd place in A had to be decided by shoot-offs.

This can get a little tense for the match director, having to organize all of this before the final scores can be tabulated, but thanks to the help from Bob Delatorre and Don Petersen the winners were determined and could be recorded on the score board.

Sherrie Taylor was also instrumental in helping me sort out the mess and I want to thank her for that.

This year was also the first year that we filled up the scope match with 48 shooters!

I had two shooters waiting in case someone dropped out and unfortunately they weren't able to shoot. Next year we will make a special effort to acquire target setters for the scope match which will allow us to accommodate all comers.

With the competitors getting older the scope match is growing so next year, which is our tenth anniversary, I hope we finally have an Arizonan holding the "Cactus Trophy" at the end of the day.

See you then.

Steve Rhoades

Match Director

To all:

There are so many stories to tell about this years Arizona State BPCR Silhouette Championships that I don't know where to start.

I guess the best thing to do is start with who is the 2009 Arizona State Champion.

Surprise, it's NOT Mike Rix!!

Butch Ulsher made the trip from Montana with his shooting partner Mark Griffis and worked his way back into the winners circle by putting together back to back 32X40s to secure the match win.

Saturday was smooth sailing with almost perfect weather conditions and the scores showed it but Sunday morning greeted everyone with gusting winds and chilly temperatures by Arizona standards. Most thought this was going to be a repeat of last year with the strong north winds blowing the targets down but by the end of the first relay everything was back to normal and the wind flags were hanging limp on their poles.

Keeping Butch honest were three Arizona shooters. Ron Calderone, Chip Mate and Jerry Cambern all had their eyes on the "Cactus Trophy" and the first ever Arizona resident win, but Butch is at his best when the competition is tough. Although he gave up the Sunday match win to Ron he managed to secure the overall championship with an aggregate score of 64X80.

Butch's partner Mark Griffis did an excellent job of making the right wind calls and was awarded the special trophy for "Best Spotter" but I really think the award should have gone to someone else. Sorry Mark, no offence, but we all overlooked the fact that Jerry Cambern's son, WHO IS ONLY ELEVEN YEARS OLD, made all the wind calls for his dad! Calls good enough for Jerry to shoot a 28X40 on Saturday and a 31X40 on Sunday as well as keeping Jerry on target during the shoot-off for Third Place Overall! This father-son combination will definitely be a force to deal with in the years to come.

Our other big winner for the weekend was the lucky competitor who had his name drawn for the Shiloh rifle, Darrell Tonn from Idaho. Darrell's name was drawn by Ms. Shiloh herself Heather Bryan and the rifle was presented by Mr. Shiloh Kirk Bryan. We were lucky enough to have the Bryan family donate a rifle again this year and a special treat was to have Kirk and Heather come to Arizona to shoot our match and do the honors by awarding the rifle to Darrell. There are some really nice people in the BPCR sport but they don't come any better than the Bryans.

The match ran really smooth again this year and the reason that happens is the help I get from some special people.

First on the list are the target setters from the Maryvale High School ROTC. These kids bust their butts for us and the shooters rewarded them with tips in excess of $1000.00 for the two days of shooting.

Next I have to thank my Carolyn and her daughters Steph and Whitt along with granddaughter Reilly who expertly handled the score keeping as well as putting on the BBQ for everyone Saturday after the match.

Sherrie Taylor also went out of her way to help me on Friday with the score keeping for the scope match and then did the same with Carolyn for the Saturday and Sunday iron sight matches.

Don Petersen provided support for the target setters and also filled in with the match calling duties and with help from Bob Delatorre handled the raffle during the BBQ.

Though the quantity of prizes for the raffle were down slightly this year I want to thank the following companies for their support:

AZ. Sharpshooters Supply-Birchwood Casey-Brooks Bullet Moulds-Brownells-Buffalo Arms-Cheaper than Dirt-Coonies Black Powder-CPA Rifles-DGL Lube-Jim Dorrell-Kermit Tool-King Machine-Lee Precision-Midway USA-Mike Venturino-Mike Whitesell-Montana Vintage Arms-Redding Saeco-Sinclair International-Shooter 2-SPG-Starline Brass-Titan Propane-Treebone Carving-Walter's Wads-and especially Shiloh Rifles from Big Timber, Montana for their donation of a #3 Sporter 45-70 rifle. If you were the lucky recipient of one of the prizes please take the time to drop a note or email the contributor and thank them for supporting our match.

The quality of a match is determined by the quality of the shooters who attend and you are all responsible for making the Arizona State Championships a GREAT match.

Thank you for attending!

Steve Rhoades

Match Director