The Forest City Juniors claimed their 4th straight Georgia Scholastic Clay Target Program State Championship last week at their home club. The previous three were all nail-biters, but this one was a decisive victory. Out of 1500 total targets, the Juniors hit 1445 to beat rival Lake Oconee Shotgun Team’s 1411 by 34 targets for the High Overall Team. The HOA Team award consists of the Top 5 scores from each team for Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays. This year’s scores were:
Skeet
- Drake Cooper 99
- Abi Pazderski 99
- Dawson Williams 99
- Jackson Schaaf 99
- Owen Haas 99*
Trap
- Jackson Schaaf 99
- Jake Dyches 96
- Rich Pazderski 95
- Jake Kinlaw 94
- Drake Cooper 94**
Sporting Clays
- Rich Pazderski 97
- Dawson Williams 96
- Owen Haas 93
- Jackson Schaaf 93
- Drake Cooper 93
* Jackson Ferland and Rich Pazderski also had 99s in Skeet, but they only count 5 scores.
** Dawson Williams also had a 94 in Trap.
Throw in Collegiate Gracie Whitley’s Skeet 99, and we had 8 shooters shoot 99s in Skeet!
On the individual side, they gave away 4 High Overall Awards, and we won 3 of them:
Rich Pazderski won the HOA Award (and a shotgun) after he and Jackson Schaaf broke 291/300 targets to tie for the top spot, with Rich winning the HOA title by one in a long 36 bird double-overtime shootoff.
Dawson Williams finished fourth 2 birds back with a 289, and, all told, we had 7 of the top 12 shooters out of over 500 total competitors.
Abi Pazderski finished 2nd for Lady HOA by 2 birds with a 274.
In the Collegiate Ranks, Gracie Whitley was the Collegiate Lady HOA with a 275 with her sister Ella finishing 4th and Gracelynn Cobb finishing 5th.
Jake Summerford was Collegiate Men’s HOA with a 288, followed by Colin Davis in 2nd and Douglas Williams in 4th.
All-State Team Members:
Skeet: Owen Haas Alternates: Jackson Ferland, Jackson Schaaf and Drake Cooper
Sporting: Rich Pazderski and Dawson Williams Alternate:
Haas, Cooper and Schaaf
Trap: Jackson Schaaf Alternate: Jake Dyches
When you read the results below, you would almost think there are only a few teams that show up at these competitions because we win so much, but that is not the case. Georgia is home to 4 of the Top 6 shooting teams in the Nation, year in and year out. The Georgia SCTP State Competition is fiercely competitive with over 25 teams and 500 athletes. It doesn’t just so happen that we are that good, we work hard at it. Our coaching staff motto is “training champions,” and that is what we do.
Here are winners from the FCGC Junior at the SCTP state championships
Varsity (9-12 grade)
Skeet: 1st Place Squad: Abi Pazderski (99), Dawson Williams (99), and Jackson Schaaf (99)*
* Rich Pazderski, Jackson Ferland, and Owen Haas all had 99s as well, but they only include 3 shooters.
Individual: There was an 11 way tie for 2nd Place with these six 99s and five others.
Owen Haas won the shootoff for 2nd Place, and Jackson Ferland finished 3rd.
Ladies 1st Place: Abi Pazderski (99)
Trap: 1st Place Squad: Jackson Schaaf (99), Jake Dyches (96), Rich Pazderski (95), Jake Kinlaw (94), and Dawson Williams (94)
Individual: 2nd Place: Jackson Schaaf (99)
Sporting Clays: 1st Place Squad: Rich Pazderski (97), Dawson Williams (96), and Owen Haas (93)*
Jackson Schaaf also had 93.
Individual: 1st Place Rich Pazderski (97), 2nd Place Dawson Williams (96)
Ladies 1st Place Abi Pazderski (90)
Super Sporting:
1st Place Squad: Rich Pazderski (47), Jackson Ferland (46), and Owen Haas (46)
Individual: 3rd Place Rich Pazderski (47)
Ladies 3rd Place Abi Pazderski (42)
Junior Varsity (9-12 grade)
Skeet: 1st Place Squad: Drake Cooper (99), Chase Buerger (98), and Miles Carson (97)
Individual: 2nd Place Drake Cooper, 3rd Place Chase Buerger (98)
Ladies 2nd Place Georgia Kennedy (94)
Trap: 1st Place Squad: Drake Cooper (94), Dan Bradley (92), Jackson Ezelle (92), John Adams (89), and Miles Carson (89)
Individual: 2nd Place Drake Cooper (94)
Sporting Clays: 2nd Place Squad: Drake Cooper (93), Miles Carson (90), and David Butler (88)
Individual: 3rd Place Drake Cooper (93)
Super Sporting:
1st Place Squad: Miles Carson (45), David Butler (44), and Drake Cooper (44)
Individual: 1st Place Miles Carson (45), 2nd Place Drake Cooper (44), 3rd Place David Butler (44)
Intermediate-Advanced (6-8 grade)
Skeet: 2nd Place Squad: Jack McKenzie (98), Gavin Walmsley (95) and Emaline Haddad (95)
Individual: 3rd Place Jack McKenzie (98)
Ladies 1st Place Emaline Haddad (95), 2nd Place Ayden Mckenzie (92)
Trap: Ladies 2nd Place Ayden McKenzie (79), 3rd Place Emaline Haddad (75)
Sporting Clays: 2nd Place Squad: Gavin Walmsley (86), Jim Reynolds Morrison (82), Marshall Kent (80)
Ladies 1st Place Ayden McKenzie (78), 3rd Place Emaline Haddad (65)
Super Sporting: 1st place Squad: Emaline Haddad (41), Gavin Walmsley (40), Marshall Kent (39)
Individual 2nd Place: Emaline Haddad (41)
Ladies 1st Place Emaline Haddad (41), 2nd Place Ayden McKenzie (36)
Intermediate-Entry (6-8 grade)
Skeet: 1st Place Squad: Grey Garceau (88), Alex Ray (88), June McKenzie (85)
Ladies 1st Place Grey Garceau (88), 2nd Place June McKenzie (85)
Trap: 3rd Place Squad: Landyn Fries (82), Alex Ray (81), Grey Garceau (79), Anthony Demott (75), Jimmy Adams (72)
Ladies 3rd Place Landyn Fries (82)
Sporting Clays: Ladies 3rd Place Emily Dyches (66)
Super Sporting: Ladies 2nd Place Grey Garceau (34)
Rookie (5th grade and under)
Skeet: 1st Place Squad: Chars Lapp (93), Jacob Butler (91), and Archer Ritchie (87)
Individual 1st Place Chars Lapp (93), 2nd Place Jacob Butler (91)
Ladies 3rd Place Mari Claire Dyches (55)
Trap: 1st Place Squad: Chars Lapp (87), Nicholas Nowell (82), Jacob Butler (77), Chip Klein (70), IV Fetterman (69)
Individual 1st Place Chars Lapp (87), 3rd Place Nicholas Nowell (82)
Ladies 3rd Place Mari Claire Dyches
Sporting Clays: 1st Place Squad: Chars Lapp (70), IV Fetterman (70), Jacob Butler (67)
Individual 2nd Place Chars Lapp (70), 3rd Place IV Fetterman (70)
Ladies 3rd Place Mari Claire Dyches (42)
Super Sporting: 1st Place Squad: Archer Ritchie (38), Jacob Butler (35), Chars Lapp (35)
Individual 1st Place Archer Ritchie (38), 2nd Place Chars Lapp (35), 3rd Place Jacob Butler (35)
Ladies 3rd Place Mari Claire Dyches (19)
Collegiate (Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior College)
No squad awards are given in Collegiate, but Forest City would have swept them all.
Skeet: 1st Place Overall and 1st Place Ladies Gracie Whitley (99), Tie 3rd Place Will Rambo (98)
Ladies 3rd Place Gracelyn Cobb (97)
Trap: 1st Place Elliott Cribbs (100), 3rd Place Douglas Williams (99)
Ladies 1st Place Gracie Whitley (91)
Sporting Clays: 2nd Place Jake Summerford (93), Tie 3rd Place Colin Davis (92) and Douglas Williams (92)
2nd Place Ladies Gracie Whitley (85)
Super Sporting:
1st Place Colin Davis (48), 2nd Place Jake Summerford (48)
2nd Place Ladies Ella Whitley (41), Tie 3rd Place Gracelyn Cobb (40) and Gracie Whitley (40)
That’s a lot of winning, but that’s what we do. - Forest City Gun Club Junior Sport Clay Shooting Team
Up Next -
The FCGC junior team now heads to defend their back-to-back titles at the National Scholastic Clay Target Program Championships at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio. The competition starts on July 5th and concludes on July 16th.
Photo Credit - DeDe Cargil
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