Valley shooters grab awards

WASILLA — A group of young shooters made a big impression at a regional event recently.

The Grouse Ridge Rangers girls team finished first in the ladies class, and second overall in the boys and girls junior varsity trap competition during the Scholastic Clay Target Program Northwest Regional Championships in Cody, Wyo., late last month.

“They’re going to be talking about those girls for a long time,” Neil Moss, the team’s head coach, said.

But the Valley girls were not the only local shooters who were the targets of attention. The group of girls was among 14 local shotgun shooters, boys and girls, who made the trip to Wyoming. Those 14, who call the Grouse Ridge Shotgun Shooting Club in Wasilla home, combined to win about 50 trophies, and finish first in the competition’s team standings with the high overall score.

Moss said, with the talent on his team, he knew if everything came together for his athletes, there was great potential to significant success.

“I expected to do quite well,” Moss said. “They’re good shooters. They put it all together. It was a great week.”

The Rangers, competing against teams from eight states, placed in every division entered. Ayla Arvin finished as the high overall shooter in the ladies class. Arvin was also first in the five-stand competition, edging teammate Rayne Hamlin.

The Rangers swept the top 3 spots in the girls five-stand.

The team is part of the Alaska SCTP program and is based at Grouse Ridge. In recent years, the team has included about 45 members each years, drawing student-athletes from across the

Valley.

Moss said clay target shooting is also being introduced as a high school club sport. There is a trap and skeet season scheduled for the fall, and a sporting clays season for the spring.

For more information about the Grouse Ridge Club or the high school shooting clubs, contact Moss at Alaska.sctp@yahoo.com or 745-8522, or see Alaska.sctp@yahoo.com.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him @matsu_sports and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.