Shotgun team places second in Division 3 at Lower East Coast Conference Championships

Friday, February 7

Savannah, GA

Liberty University Club Sports

ACUI Lower East Coast Conference Championships

Shotgun team at Lower East Coast Conference deck shoot

Liberty team members shoot from a dock, one of the Sporting Clay stations at the Lower East Coast Conference Championships in Savannah, Ga.

Shotgun team places second in Division 3 at Lower East Coast Conference Championships

2/10/2025 6:41:00 PM | Shotgun

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Liberty has already qualified for the ACUI National Championships in San Antonio set for March 16-22.

Gallery: (2-10-2025) Shotgun Lower East Coast Conference

Liberty University's shotgun team posted a strong showing at this past weekend's ACUI Lower East Coast Conference Championships at the Forest City Gun Club in Savannah, Ga.

The Flames and Lady Flames, who compete as a Division 3 program, finished seventh out of 13 teams in the High Overall standings — based on their top five shooters' scores in Doubles Skeet, Doubles Trap, American Skeet, American Trap, Sporting Clays, and Super Sporting Clays — and second at the Division III level.

"They shot well down there," Liberty Head Coach Jacob Davis said. "Nobody won any individual awards, but they did well across the board. It is a very tough region with so many D1 and D2 schools in the field. The only D3 school that beat us was Montreat (N.C.), which came in fifth."

Emmanuel (Ga.) College was the High Overall champion with 2,141 points followed by Jacksonville (Fla.) University (2,093), Clemson (2,069), University of Tennessee Southern (2,044), Montreat (2,003), Bethel University (1,991), and Liberty (1,978).

Individually, junior Nathan Hagy placed first for the Flames in the American Skeet division, hitting 97 out of 100 targets, Doubles Skeet (48 out of 50), and Super Sporting Clay (47 out of 50). Meanwhile, senior captain Dalton Krossman edged Hagy to lead Liberty in the Sporting Clays (80 out of 100) and Flames teammates freshman chaplain Ryan Doyle, in American Trap (96 out of 100) and senior chaplain Harrison Russell in Doubles Trap (44 out of 50).

Senior captain Matthew Daniels placed second in American Skeet (95) and Doubles Skeet (45), and third in Sporting Clays (77).

The event served as a qualifier for the March 16-22 ACUI National Championships in San Antonio, but the Flames and Lady Flames had already automatically qualified by finishing third at the D3 level last year — with a higher overall score than their championship total in 2023 in Texas.

Davis hopes this last competition serves as a springboard for the team to prepare for nationals, where the top 10 Flames and Lady Flames shooters will compete in American Skeet, American Doubles Skeet, American Trap, American Doubles Trap, Sporting Clays, and Super Sporting Clays.

"It is only four weeks to nationals now, and one of those is Spring Break, so we will definitely be doing intensive practice (sessions), using lessons learned this past weekend to guide what we're going to do," Davis said. "We will be doing most of that at the Liberty Mountain Gun Club, as well as visiting a few surrounding ranges to add variety to the equation."

He said the Forest City Gun Club is probably four times larger than Liberty's range facility, but only about a third as large as the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio. The team is targeting a similar finish to that of previous seasons, including back-to-back runner-up showings in 2021 and 2022.

"Definitely, we want to repeat our podium finish if not repeat as national champions again," Davis said.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer