Riflery: Shooting for Success
Beginning in 1986, a small team consisting of six shooters in the basement boiler room of the Murdough Athletic Center, riflery has grown into popular 24-person varsity sport. This season, they competed in various shoulder-to-shoulder and postal matches, including the Gary Anderson Cup, Western Brown Invitational, and the Atascocita Postal. Mr. Ong, the head coach of the riflery team, mentioned that the team had a solid season, with some notable successes. All shooters who traveled to Camp Perry for the Gary Anderson Cup won silver or bronze medals. Before winter break, twelve shooters traveled again to Camp Perry, winning the Western Brown Invitational with first overall and many individual awards.
On January 21st, eight shooters participated in the Ohio qualifiers for the National Air Rifle Championship, with Angela Ryan ’23 winning silver and Katy McCaffrey ’24 winning bronze, placing overall second and third. The range record, at 281-12, set by the current captain, Angela Ryan ’23, was also tied recently by fellow captain Cameron Griffith ’23 with a 281-10.
This season was eventful, with a mysterious individual in the riflery team placing plastic beavers, Mr. Ong’s favorite animal, around the range. There were also some unfortunate events, including the loss of Western Reserve Academy’s invitational, only losing by six points against Western Brown High School. In addition, this year’s second-highest scorer, Lucy Li ’23, could not compete for a large portion of the season due to an injury. However, Mr. Ong noted his satisfaction with the achievements in the 22/23 season and the improvements of juniors Angel Qin ’24 and Katy McCaffrey ’24. He also commended the talented group of new shooters, including Jessica Wu ’26 and Kate Zhou ’25, who won multiple medals throughout the season with competition averages higher than nearly all new shooters throughout the program’s history. He especially emphasized the new shooters’ willingness to learn how to coach themselves and mentioned that many were doing a remarkable job. He also thanks the team for their positive attitude and unrelenting work ethic throughout the season and looks forward to the following seasons.
– Haram Yoo ’25
The Reserve Record 