Pair of Valley teens medal at Junior Olympics

WASILLA — Earlier this month, a pair of 17-year-old girls from the Valley medaled at the National Junior Olympics in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Meghan Thompson, of Houston, took third overall in International Skeet and Jasmine Otis, of Wasilla, placed second in the J2 division for those born between 2000-2002.

For Thompson, the reigning state trap champion, college is the first thing on her mind this summer, so she won’t be competing in the follow-up event, the USAS Shotgun Junior National Championships, again in Colorado Springs July 11-16. In fact, she’ll already be beginning summer school at UAA then.

Otis, on the other hand, is determined to make it there, despite the short turnaround time and the difficulty that creates in coming up with the money to pay for her trip.

The senior-to-be at Wasilla High School is putting forth every effort to make it to the event, which she sees as absolutely vital to her dream of being on the U.S. Olympic team for the 2020 games in Tokyo.

“I’ve been on the phone all morning playing phone tag with sponsors since the trip is next week and I’m starting from zero. We have to book everything before we go down there, so I’m stressing out,” Otis said. “I’m not just going down to compete and get an award. I want to get on the junior national team and the Junior Olympic squad… You have to get a minimum qualifying score there and only then can you qualify as an Olympic hopeful, then you can go to fall selections. That’s the first stepping stone to the Olympics, Tokyo 2020. There’s all these shoots you have to go through… If I don’t go to nationals, there’s no point in going to the fall selections at nationals. I want to make that national team. I missed nationals last year by one target.”

If Otis can pull off that dream, she’ll follow in the footsteps of Alaska’s own Olympic medalist Corey Cogdell, who came of age shooting at the same Birchwood Shooting Range Otis shoots at. There, photos of Cogdell with her medals from the Beijing and Rio de Janeiro Games, and a letter of thanks from Cogdell and her father to the club for all their support.

Otis knows Cogdell’s life story as well as she does her own.

“It was the fire inside of her,” Otis said before proceeding to tell the story of Cogdell, who learned to shoot in 4H club, whose mother was killed in a car crash while she was at Bible camp, and who found focus and success at the local shooting club. “She lived in the range; shot bunkers every day. At Olympic trials, the national team coach told her, ‘there’s this fire inside of you; I can’t really put my finger on it, but there’s this fire inside of you.”

On Sunday, Otis said, the Birchwood Shooting Range will be dedicating a trap field to Cogdell, who is in town presently, but lives in Colorado Springs with her husband, Chicago Bears lineman Mitch Unrein.

“I’m not saying I want to live the life of Corey Cogdell, but I definitely want to follow in the footsteps of all the obstacles she overcame.”

Otis displays her fire for trap and skeet not only on the rifle range, but in fundraising as well.

“At Christmas time, there’s the Wasilla High School Gun Show, there’s the Raven Gun Show at Raven Hall and I’ll sit up there — I have a TV, like all my gun stuff on the table with a jar and people will pass by and talk to me and give me $5, $10, $20 and I’ll raise up to a thousand dollars in one day, two days, which is pretty good. But if you don’t have motivation for a goal, there’s no point to do it.”” Otis said. “I have a gofundme account, but my family supports me — everything my mom pays. She’s a single mom with two kids — my brother lives out of the house now, but it’s my sport and impossible to pay for.”

Thompson said her draw to the sport began and continues with the thrill of making the clays shatter into a million pieces.

“Seeing it explode is my favorite part — it’s like fireworks,” Thompson said. “It makes you feel so good inside. It’s fun and fast — you’re not just aiming… This is challenging; it’s a moving target, the wind changes, your mental stamina changes, there’s all these people, the sun — all these things that influence where the bird’s going to go.”

For Otis, the main draw is the internal challenge.

“Ninety percent of it is mental,” Otis said. “It’s not getting angry and forgetting when you miss a target.”

Otis is still busy applying her steely focus to fundraising to keep her 2020 Olympic dreams alive. To find out more, e-mail her at jasmrotis@gmail.com.