Flames and Lady Flames Head Coach Jacob Davis (right) brought 13 team members to the ACUI Lower East Coast Conference Championships over the weekend in Savannah, Ga.
Shotgun team shows it can compete with the best at ACUI Lower East Coast Conference event
2/12/2024 9:14:00 PM | Shotgun
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Liberty placed fifth out of 15 teams and first of the Division 3 schools in the competition held in Savannah, Ga.
Liberty University's shotgun team finished fifth out of 15 teams and first among Division 3 teams (those with 10 or fewer competitors) at Friday's through Sunday's ACUI Lower East Coast Conference Championships hosted by Forest City Gun Club in Savannah, Ga.
The Flames and Lady Flames combined for a total score of 2,025 out of a possible 2,250 points.
"All of the teams that finished ahead of us were Division 1 and Division 2 teams, and we scored better than all of the other Division 3 teams," said Liberty first-year Head Coach Jacob Davis, who entered a team of 11 men and two women. "This was only the second time we have attended this regional tournament. Formerly, we competed in the Northeast Region tournament in Maryland, and we have always done well there. I decided to switch it this year because of the quality of the facility and the caliber of talent we would be competing against."
Matt Daniels fires at clay targets backed by Nate Hagy.
The warmer conditions, with temperatures in the 70s all weekend, created a relaxed atmosphere for the shooters from colleges and universities throughout the Southeast at the outdoor shooting range.
"Not being out in freezing temperatures was beneficial, but we generally shoot well regardless of the weather," Davis said.
Individually, Liberty's top five performers in the High Overall category out of a total of 450 clays in the six disciplines of American Skeet, American Trap, Super Sporting Clays, Sporting Clays, Doubles Skeet, and Doubles Trap were junior Matt Daniels (415), senior Zack Reaves (405), junior Dalton Krossman (402), sophomore Nate Hagy (397), and junior Harrison Russell (382).
"We had very good consistency across the board," Davis said. "We did well in all six events, right around that fourth- to seventh-place range out of the 15 programs."
The Flames and Lady Flames finished fourth out of 12 teams in Doubles Trap (shooting 219 out of 250); fifth out of 19 teams in American Trap (475 out of 500); sixth out of 12 teams in Doubles Skeet (232 out of 250); sixth out of 19 teams in Sporting Clays (402 out of 500); seventh out of 16 teams in Super Sporting (216 out of 250); and 10th out of 19 teams in American Skeet (481 out of 500).
Lilly Cooper won a shootoff for second in Doubles Skeet.
Daniels was the American Trap champion after hitting 99 out of 100 targets while sophomore Lilly Cooper finished in a five-way tie for second place in the Doubles Skeet event by shooting 48 out of 50 clays. In a five-way shootoff, Cooper broke five out of six targets to win, securing second place overall.
In the American Skeet event, Hagy (98), Reaves (97), Daniels (96), Krossman (95), and Russell (95) all shot high scores.
This Saturday, eight members of the team will travel to the third-annual Mid-Atlantic Cup at Shane's Sporting Clays in Summerfield, N.C., where they will compete in Sporting Clays and Super Sporting Clays only.
