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The first five titles of the USA Shooting National Championships (USASNC) for Rifle and Pistol were awarded today as National Champions were declared in Women\u2019s Air Rifle, Men\u2019s Three-Position Rifle, Men\u2019s Standard and Center Fire Pistol; as well as Junior Sport Pistol.<\/p>\n
Holding on to her Day 1 lead in the Women\u2019s Air Rifle event, 2012 Olympian and defending National Champion Sarah Scherer<\/strong> (Woburn, Mass.) retained her National Champion crown with 851 points. The top-three positions in this event remained the same from Day 1 as Amy Sowash<\/strong> (Richmond, Ky.) held on to second place with 839.6 points and National Team member Sarah Beard<\/strong> (Danville, Ind.) also remained in third place with 827.4 points. \u00a0With their top-three finishes, Scherer and Beard are once again named to the National Team with Sowash also earning a berth on the National Team.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Marsh<\/strong> ( Cleburne County, Ark.) won the gold in the Junior division with 824.9 points \u2013 a score that put her fourth overall and earned her a spot on the Junior National Team. In second for Junior Women\u2019s Air Rifle is Elizabeth Gratz<\/strong> (Sigel, Ill.) with 836.3 \u2013 a score that put her in fifth-place overall. In third is Dacotah Faught<\/strong> (Amenia, N.D.) with 818.3 points.<\/p>\n Just as in Women\u2019s Air Rifle\u2013 the top-three positions in Men\u2019s Three-Position Rifle remained the same after Day 2 as U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) shooter and four-time Olympian Jason Parker<\/strong> (Omaha, Neb.) retained his National Championship title in this event with 2357 points.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been working very hard this spring adjusting to the new ISSF rule changes,\u201d Parker said. \u00a0\u201cI worked especially hard with my coach Tom Tamas<\/strong> on standing and building a new finals routine. The new finals have quite a few new challenges for the shooters that were brought up under different rules, but I was happy that all of the hard work towards them paid off!\u201d<\/p>\n Retaining second place and winning the silver medal is Dempster Christenson <\/strong>(Sioux Falls, S.D.) with 2342 points and Parker\u2019s USAMU and 2012 Olympic teammate Michael McPhail<\/strong> (Darlington, Wis.) placed third with 2340 points. Parker and McPhail also have been renewed as members of the National Team with Christenson being promoted to the National Team with his second-place finish.<\/p>\n In Junior Men\u2019s Three-Position Rifle, Garrett Spurgeon<\/strong> (Canton, Mo.) defended his gold medal with a score of 2324 \u2013 a score that placed him sixth overall. Connor Davis<\/strong> (Shelbyville, Ky.) took second with 2323 points and Ryan Anderson<\/strong> (Fairbanks, Alaska) took third with 2317 points. All three of these athletes have re-qualified for berths on the National Junior Team.<\/p>\n During the awards ceremony, National Rifle Coach Marcus Raab<\/strong> announced that Scherer, Sowash, Beard, Parker, Christenson and McPhail would also be named to the World Cup team to compete in Granada, Spain in July.<\/p>\n The final scores in Women\u2019s Air Rifle and Men\u2019s Three-Position Rifle are a combined total of points including qualification scores from yesterday, today and additional points awarded for placing in each day\u2019s final (Eight additional points awarded for first, seven points for second, six points for third and so on for all finals positions) as laid out under USA Shooting\u2019s new National Championship and World Cup team selection procedures for this event. For more information on this amendment, please click here: http:\/\/bit.ly\/18P2ebn<\/a><\/ins><\/strong><\/p>\n On the pistol side, USAMU shooters swept the Center Fire event (pictured right) with Brad Balsley<\/strong> (Uniontown, Pa.) holding on to his Day 1 lead of 1177 points to win the gold medal. Greg Markowski<\/strong>\u00a0 (Columbus, Ga.) stayed in second to receive the silver medal with 1162 points and Sean Ragay<\/strong> (Fort Benning, Ga.) retained third with 1159 points.<\/p>\n In Standard Pistol, Markowski held on to first place with 1139 points. Balsley stayed in second with 1133 and National Junior Team member Alexander Chichkov<\/strong> (Temple Terrace, Fla.) took third with 1123 points.<\/ins><\/p>\n The lone Junior National Championship title of the day was awarded to Timothy Steinberg<\/strong>, who held on to his first-place position in Sport Pistol with 1122 points. Rounding out the top three was Chichkov with 1116 points and 2013 Junior Olympic champion Robert Wells<\/strong> (Pontotoc, Miss.) with 1110.<\/p>\n