Mat-Su Central student wins back-to-back Alaska State Trapshooting Championships

BIRCHWOOD – For the second year in a row, Logan Williamson, Mat-Su Central student and member of Colony Knights YESS/Alaska YESS Varsity Team, is the Alaska Amateur Trap Association State Champion.

The 2024 ATA Alaska State Championship was shot concurrently with the ATA Western Zone Championship which began on July 19 and ran through July 21, 2024. Eleven clubs hosted more than 700 clay target enthusiasts from across the West Coast and Canada who came together to compete in the three-day tournament, which featured 700 targets between the preliminary and main events. The preliminary event consisted of 300 targets, 100 each in Singles, Handicap and Doubles. Over the following two days, the main event consisted of another 400 targets thrown in the same disciplines. Logan Williamson, along with nine other Alaska YESS athletes, made their presence known among the competitors at Birchwood Recreation & Shooting Park during this past weekend. In the Junior, SubJunior, C Class and D Class Divisions, these young trapshooters brought home trophies in every discipline.

In Friday’s Preliminary events, after an intense 50 target shoot-off with Piper Botson, Logan won the Singles Champion trophy, in addition to Doubles and Handicap Champion, as well as Western Zone SubJunior Handicap Champion, breaking 96/100 targets from the 19-yard line. In the main event, Logan not only walked away with the Alaska ATA State Champion trophy, but he also won Singles Champion (197/200), Doubles Champion (95/100) and SubJunior Handicap Champion (93/100), breaking 385 out of 400 targets during the final two days! Additionally, he won ATA Western Zone A Class Champion. Logan tied for ATA Western Zone SubJunior Doubles Champion with a competitor in Butte, Montana, leading to a long-distance shoot-off where participants shoot 20 targets at a time, while shoot administrators compare scoresheets electronically, until the tie is broken. After 80 thrown targets, Logan won the shoot-off and took home the ATA Western Zone SubJunior Doubles Champion trophy!

“Last year we shot for three days in the pouring rain and this year we just cooked for three days in the heat” said Logan, while discussing the warm weather conditions, ‘it doesn’t matter what the weather throws at us, we show up no matter what the forecast is”. These youth athletes train year around in every type of weather; rain, wind, snow and subzero temperatures, which prepares them for success regardless of the environment they’re competing in. The 2024 ATA State Championship saw blue bird skies during the entirety of the event, leading to heat exhaustion, blood blisters and a myriad of other heat induced conditions, “700 targets in three days is a grind, we went through a lot of water last weekend”, Logan joked while looking back on the event.

Logan Williamson wasn’t the only Alaska YESS athlete to walk away with trophies. In the main event, Tristin Loughman (Rabbit Creek) won the SubJunior Champion Trophy; Piper Botson (Rabbit Creek) won the C Class Champion Trophy; Dausen Loughman (Rabbit Creek) won the D Class Champion Trophy, in addition to several more trophies for individual events in their respective classes. Quincy Gellerman (Rabbit Creek) won the Junior Gold Champion trophy and Clayton Gellerman (Rabbit Creek) won the Junior Gold Doubles Trophy in the main event. JD Devaris (Colony Knights YESS) won Junior Handicap Champion in the preliminary event. Other AlaskaYESS athlete participants included Lloyd Pehrson (Redington Huskies YESS), Sophie Frye (Susitna Shooters), Marty Gellerman (Rabbit Creek) and Kirby Gallagher (Rabbit Creek).