2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky faced long odds entering the second day of the 10m air rifle event after ending the first day in seventh place and 4.3 points back. The first step in getting back in contention was a strong second day of qualifying and Kozeniesky was 3.8 points better and moved up to fourth and within  a point of the leader thanks to others struggles. Day one leader Bryant Wallizer maintained the lead going into the final, though by only 0.6 points over second place Connor Davis and Ivan Roe (who had been in eighth after day one!). With these four separated by less than a point any of them could grab the title with a win in the final. Davis was the first one eliminated and Roe and Wallizer finished in fifth and fourth to leave only Kozeniesky in the running. Kozeniesky then had to fend off a challenge from fellow Olympian Daniel Lowe who had been fifth going into the final but was only two points behind Kozeniesky. Lowe went on to win the final and would have finished tied with Kozeniesky for first except Kozeniesky managed to finish second in the final to claim the national championship. Thomas Kyanko was second after day one but fell to fifth in the final standings after a third place finish in the final. Defending champion Dempster Christenson finished ninth after missing the final by 0.2 points.

The women’s 50m three position rifle event saw a nice duel between 2016 Olympians Virginia Thrasher and Sarah Scherer. Scherer was better on the second day of qualifying with a competition high 589. She was six points better than Trasher in that round to take a three point edge to the final. Trasher needed Scherer to stumble so despite winning the final she finished second as Scherer was runner-up in the final to grab the national title. Minden Miles wasn’t as sharp as the first day but held a seven point lead on fourth going into the final so she won bronze despite finishing last in the final. Last year’s runner-up, Erin McNeil, missed the final and finished 10th while while last year’s third place finisher, Amy Sowash, was fifth.

In the first day of the women’s 25m sport pistol event last year’s third place finisher Brenda Silva took a two point lead while posting a 570. Sarah Choe broke up last year’s top three with a 568 to move into second, one ahead of a three-way tie featuring 2016 Olympian and defending champion Enkelejda Shehaj, the runner-up from last year Sandra Uptagrafft, and Irina Andrianova.

The men’s 50m free pistol event is being led by Greg Markowski, already a two-time winner here in Ft. Benning. Markowski has a seven point lead over last year’s bronze medalist, Jason Turner, with James Hall and defending champion Nick Mowrer four points further back in third.

Things wrap up Wednesday with the second day of qualifying and the finals in both the pistol events.

Previous 2016 USA Shooting National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update
Friday Update
Saturday Update
Sunday Update
Monday Update

2016 Olympian Emil Milev dominated the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event on day two scoring a competition best 582 and winning the final to grab the gold by 41 points over Anatoly Pikman. Justin Ahn struggled on day two and fell to fourth while Glenn Zimmerman took advantage to grab the bronze, 24 behind Pikman.

In the men’s 10m air rifle Bryant Wallizer holds the lead after day one with a 625.2. With Thomas Kyanko in second with a 624.3 and Connor Davis in third with a 623 none of the favorites are at the top. 2016 Olympians Lucas Kozeniesky and Daniel Lowe are seventh and fifth respectively but are both within five points of the leader. Defending champion Dempster Christenson is less in contention in 11th, six points back.

The women’s 50m three position rifle event is more predictable. 2016 Olympian Virginia Thrasher is leading with a 586 while fellow Olympian Sarah Scherer is third with a 583. Minden Miles is second with a 585. Last year’s runner-up, Erin McNeil, is in ninth with a 578 while last year’s third place finisher, Amy Sowash, is in fourth place with a 582.

Those two events wrap up on Tuesday with the second day of qualifying and the final in both events. The women’s 25m sport pistol event and the men’s 50m free pistol event will both be beginning. The women’s sport event will feature 2016 Olympian and defending champion Enkelejda Shehaj as well as the second and third place finishers from last year, Sandra Uptagrafft and Brenda Silva. The men’s free event won’t feature any of the 2016 Olympians but does feature defending champion Nick Mowrer and defending bronze medalist Jason Turner. The overall competition continues in Ft. Benning until Wednesday.

Previous 2016 USA Shooting National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update
Friday Update
Saturday Update
Sunday Update

2016 Olympian Michael McPhail won the men’s 50m rifle prone event as he grabbed a commanding lead of 5.3 points over Dempster Christenson going into the final and finished second in the final behind Christenson to win the national championship after finishing second last year. McPhail was the best shooter in qualifying on both days. Jason Dardas had fallen into fourth before the final but finished third in the final to move back into the bronze medal position. 2016 Olympian David Higgins missed out on the final and finished ninth,

In the women’s 50m rifle event Morgan Phillips fired off a competition best 625.1 on the second day to win the title on a tiebreaker after finishing in a tie with Hanna Carr. Ariana Grabowski stayed in third and finished 3.1 behind Phillips and Carr. Barrett Ray had been in second but a second day 608.4 left her in seventh. Defending champion Reya Kempley was able to move up to fourth but finished three behind the bronze medal position.

Greg Markowski’s quest for his third win of the week, in the men’s 10m air pistol, came down to the wire but a strong performance by Nick Mowrer did just enough to win the event. Mowrer was three points better in the qualifying to take a point lead going into the final. That margin was vital as Markowski won the event with Mowrer in second, causing the title to be decided by inner ten’s during the qualifying rounds, a tiebreaker that went to Mowrer. James Hall fell from second to third where he finished six points behind the top two.

In the women’s event Alexis Lagan maintained a six point lead going into the final and finished third to lock up the gold. Sandra Uptagrafft was second in the final and finished five points behind Lagan. Brenda Silva finished eight points behind Uptagrafft in third.

In the first day of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event 2016 Olympian Emil Milev was the start shooting a 573 to take an 18 point lead over Anatoly Pikman. Justin Ahn is in third place with a score of 553. The event will wrap up on Monday with a second day of qualifying and then a final.

Monday will also be the first day of qualifying in the men’s 10m air rifle and the women’s 50m three position rifle events. The men’s event will feature 2016 Olympians Lucas Kozeniesky and Daniel Lowe as well as defending champion Dempster Christenson. Lowe was third in the competition last year with Kozeniesky in 22nd. The women’s event will feature 2016 Olympians Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher as well as the second and third place finishers from last year, Erin McNeil and Amy Sowash. Thrasher was fourth last year. The overall competition continues in Ft. Benning until Wednesday.

Previous 2016 USA Shooting National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update
Friday Update
Saturday Update

2016 Olympian Michael McPhail took the lead in the men’s 50m rifle prone event on day one as he tries to improve on last year’s second place finish. McPhail shot a 631.2 to take a 3.6 point lead over Dempster Christenson. Jason Dardas is 2.4 points behind Christenson as there is a lot of separation developing in the event. The other 2016 Olympian, David Higgins, is in sixth after a 622.9 opening day. In the women’s 50m rifle event defending champion Reya Kempley will be hard pressed to repeat after an opening day 616.7 left her in sixth. Hanna Carr leads with a 622.1 and a 3.8 point lead over Barrett Ray. Ariana Grabowski is in third 0.7 points behind Ray.

The lead in the men’s 10m air pistol belongs to Greg Markowski, going for his third win of the week, after an opening day 576 put him one point above James Hall. Nick Mowrer, second last year, is in third with a 574. Things aren’t as tight in the women’s event as Alexis Lagan leads with a 583, six ahead of Brenda Silva. Sandra Uptagrafft it just one point behind Silva.

All of these events wrap up Sunday. There will be finals in the men’s and women’s air pistol events and the men’s rifle event after the second day of qualifying. The women’s rifle event ends with a second round of qualifying shooting. There will also be the first day of qualifying for the men’s rapid fire pistol event. 2016 Olympian Emil Milev will compete in the event where he finished second last year. The overall competition continues in Ft. Benning until Wednesday.

Previous 2016 USA Shooting National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update
Friday Update

Greg Markowski won both the 25m standard pistol and the 25m center fire pistol competitions at the USA Shooting National Championships on Friday. Markowski shot a competition high 575 in the 25m standard pistol event to win the event by 14 points over Emil Milev. Nick Mowrer cut into Milev’s margin on Friday but still finished two points behind him in third. It was the same order in the 25m center fire pistol event but Milev had the best second day score, besting Markowski by two points to finish just two points back in second with an 1160 score. Mowrer finished 20 points back of Milev.

2016 Olympian Virginia Thrasher had a comeback on Friday to move into second going into the final and then finished second in the final to jump into first place and win the 10m air rifle competition. Thrasher posted a 416.9 in the second day of competition but still trailed Minden Miles by 3.5 going into the final after a competition high 418.4 from Miles in the second day of qualifying. Needing to not only do well in the final but also have Miles go out semi-early, Thrasher got her break as Miles ended up finishing sixth in the final and opening the door for Thrasher. She needed a second place finish at that point and she got it, barely holding her off for the national title 838.6 to 838.1. Co-leader after day one Elizabeth Gratz shot at 394.8 in the second day of qualifying and wound up 39th. Amy Sowash fell from third to fifth going into the final and wound up in seventh after finishing seventh in the final as well. 2016 Olympian Sarah Scherer moved into fourth going into the final and then won the final to finish third, 0.6 points behind Miles.

Dempster Christenson and Ryan Jacobs continued their nice battle on the second day of qualifying in the men’s 50m 3 position rifle as Christenson overcame a two point deficit to take a one point lead into the final after a second day 1171. With a 11 point gap back to third it would come down to Christenson and Jacobs in the final. Unfortunately Jacobs went out first so Christenson had the title locked up without much drama. He went on to win the final and finish with 2348, eight ahead of Jacobs. Daniel Lowe moved into third before the final and held off four shooters who had been within two of him after finishing fourth in the final. He needed a tiebreaker to beat 2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky who was tied for fourth going into the final and finished fourth in the final and fourth overall. Ivan Roe had been in second after the first day but an 1135 on the second day dropped him all the way to 14th. Defending runner-up George Norton rebounded on the second day to finish seventh.

Saturday is the first of two days of qualifying in the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol events as well as the men’s 50m rifle prone event. None of the 2016 Olympians in the pistol events will be competing but Mowrer, who was second in the men’s event last year, is back. The two 2016 Olympians in the rifle, Michael McPhail and David Higgins, are both competing. McPhail was second last year in the event. The women’s 50m prone rifle event will also begin with the first day of competition. Defending champion Reya Kempley will be defending her title. The overall competition continues in Ft. Benning until Wednesday.

Previous 2016 USA Shooting National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update

Greg Markowski is on track to win two events at the USA Shooting National Championships as he leads both the 25m standard pistol and the 25m center fire pistol competitions at the halfway mark. In the standard pistol event Markowski shot a 568 to take a one point lead over defending champion Emil Milev. Sitting in third is Nick Mowrer with a 562. It’s the same three competing and in the same order in the center fire event but the margins are bigger with Markowski at 581, Milev at 577, and Mowrer at 564.

It’s a bit of a surprise leader in the women’s 10m air rifle competition as Minden Miles and Elizabeth Gratz lead with 416.7 while Amy Sowash sits third with a 415.4. The 2016 Olympians, Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher, sit fifth and sixth with scores of 414.9 and 414.7.  The men’s 50m 3 position rifle is lead by Ryan Jacobs who posted a first day 1171. Dempster Christenson and Ivan Roe sit in second with an 1169 score. 2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky is in fourth with an 1163 and defending runner-up George Norton is 10th with an 1158.

Friday is the second half of the standard and center fire pistol events and the second day of qualifying in the rifle events. The finals for both the rifle events will be held on Friday as well. The overall competition continues in Ft. Benning until Wednesday.

Previous 2016 USA Shooting National Championships Coverage:
Preview