The Bedford County Crush trap team wrapped up the 2020-2021 shooting season in strong fashion in recent competition. 

Comprised of middle school, high school and collegiate members, the team has competed well in recent American Trap, Doubles Trap and American Handicap Trap all season long. 

The team has participated in monthly competitions, the Tennessee State Championship, which was held in June, and sent 10 members to the AIM Grand American Trapshooting Championships, held at the World Shooting and Recreation Center in Sparta, Illinois. 

The Grand American Trapshooting Championships consisted of five days of shooting, with the first two days being a 200 bird sporting clays competition, which preceded the trap competition.

The Sunday doubles trap competition saw Gunnar McGowan take his class championship, while Emma Hill won the junior gold class runner-up trophy.

Hunter Willhelm took third in the junior class as well. 

During Monday and Tuesday of the Grand Championship are the highlighted American Singles trap competition. 

The 200-bird event is broke into two days of 100 each, 

Prior to beginning the actual competition, members of the Crush were able to take part in a few short practice rounds.

Following the first day of competition, the junior gold squad, which is made up of high school and college shooters, sat in first place with a quality lead in their class. The junior squad made up of all high school shooters also shot well and finished the first day sitting in 10th place. 

As competition progressed into Tuesday, both teams competed at the same time in neighboring fields

And both squads continued to impress into Tuesday. 

The Junior Squad, made up of Garrett Doak, Wyatt Wilson, Shamari McChristian, Jacob Flannagan and Gunnar McGowan picked up a 10-bird improvement over their Monday performance, with several shooters posting personal best scores. 

Even with the improvements into Day 2, the team moved to fifth place, falling just short of the medal stand. 

The Junior Gold team, made up of Emma Hill, Emma Matthews, Nate Doak, Evan Phillips and Hunter Wilhelm, competed against other collegiate squads and maintained their lead to total a two-day score of 975-100, which was a record no other Crush team had achieved before. 

This effort proved enough to capture first place and national championship honors by six birds over the second-place finisher. 

The American Trap competitions are comprised of three events.

Jacob Flannagan, of Community High School, took runner-up in his class for High All-Around, an award where the scores in singles, doubles and handicap are all tallied for an all-around score. 

While the Grand American is the top-event in the sport for American Trap, the Crush recently had four other individuals nationally recognized as well.

The AIM All-State team 2020 recognized Wilhelm, while the Southern Zone No. 1 spot in the Junior Gold (collegiate) went to Emma Hill.

The No. 1 spot in the Sub Junior (Middle/High School) went to McGowan.

Matthews was selected to Lady 1 Second Team All-American. 

Even in a year plagued with COVID stoppages, the Crush were able to not only showcase competitive outings in virtually every competition, but earned a National Championship, four national trophies and four All-State/Zone/American honor placements. 

For more information on the Bedford County Crush, visit the team’s Facebook page.