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