Special thanks to Jim Duncan for putting together this write up and sharing with KCNI/KBBN
2024 USAYESS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Nebraska One Box Rock Crushers bring home the 3 rd place trophy in the 2024
USAYESS Junior Clay Target Championships in San Antonio, Texas.
The 10 th Annual USAYESS Junior Clay Target Championships was held at
Kerrville and San Antonio, Texas June 12 th through the 15 th . The Rock Crushers packed
up their shotguns and headed south to the National Shoot after once again winning the
Nebraska USAYESS State and the North Central Regional Shoots. When the smoke
cleared, the Rock Crushers took home the trophy for finishing third place team in the
nation. Head Coach, Dave Stunkel stated that although the team finished third, this
year, the kids probably took home as many, if not more, medals than in previous years
with a total of 75 medals won. The overall 2024 champion was Carroll High School
Dragons from Texas. Second place was the Wasatch Wing and Clays team from
Washington State.
Fifteen Rock Crushers competed in three of the squad-age categories. The
Senior Squad consisted of John Leiting, Jackson Hanson, Kellin Nelson, Zach Hinze
and Mason Pillard. The Intermediate Squad was made up of Teagan Woodward,
Cooper Loughran, Peyton Williams, Kalib Berggren, and Eli Smith. The Junior Varsity
Squad was Garrett Johnk, Hunter Hackle, Blaine Frizzell, Hudson Werkmeister, and
Kaela Hinze.
In his 22 nd year coaching the Rock Crushers, Coach Stunkel continued his string
of bringing home at least one trophy in national competition every year with multiple
individual and squad national champion and runner-up finishes at this year’s
Championship.
The competition began with the Olympic-style events at Kerrville, Texas with
each shooter competing in fifty target competitions in International Skeet and
International Bunker Trap. Eli Smith got the Rock Crushers started in International
Skeet by shooting a 36 out of 50 and taking second place in Intermediate Men. Kaela
Hinze finished as Champion in the Junior Varsity Ladies, outshooting all other lady
competitors by five targets with a 32/50. The Rock Crushers took the Gold Medals in
both JV and Varsity Men with Blaine Frizzell as Junior Varsity Men Champion with a
38/50 and Zach Hinze shooting 42/50 targets to post the highest score of all competitors
and took home the Senior Men Champion medal.
In International Bunker Trap, Teagan Woodward placed third in Intermediate Men
breaking 37 out of 50, Kaela Hinze was again JV Ladies Champion and shot a 41.
Blaine Frizzell took his second championship of the day in JV Men with a 36 and Zach
Hinze finished 2nd in Senior Men with an impressive 46/50 in the event.
Thursday kicked off the American Style events in San Antonio. In Skeet
Doubles, Mason Pillard was the Varsity Men Champion shooting an impressive 97 out
of 100. Blaine Frizzell was not far behind, shooting 94/100 to take Champion honors in
JV Men.
In Super Sporting Clays, Teagan Woodward was the only Rock Crusher to take a
medal, breaking 95 of 100 targets to tie for second and taking home the Silver Medal by
winning a shoot off.
On Friday, the team shot American Skeet and Sporting Clay events.
In American Skeet, Eli Smith finished in a three-way tie for first place in
Intermediate Men, shooting 96/100, and following a shoot off, took the silver medal.
Blaine Frizzell missed only two targets with 98/100 to finish in a tie for first place and
lost the shoot off, taking home the silver medal. In Senior Men, Zach Hinze broke
97/100 to tie for second with four other shooters but lost in a shoot off.
In American Skeet squad competition, the Intermediate squad of Eli Smith,
Teagan Woodward, Cooper Loughran, Peyton Williams, and Kalib Berggren, finished as
Champion squad and the Junior Varsity team of Garrett Johnk, Blaine Frizzell, Hunter
Hackle, Hudson Werkmeister, and Kaela Hinze finished as the second place squad.
In Sporting Clays, Hudson Werkmeister earned the second place medal in JV
Men with a score of 85/100, which was the only individual medal won by the Rock
Crushers in the event. In squad competition, the Intermediate squad of Smith,
Woodward, Loughran, Williams and Berggren collected another gold medal. The JV
squad of K. Hinze, Johnk, Hackle, Frizzell, and Werkmeister finished in second and took
another silver medal for the day.
The competition wrapped up on Saturday with the Trap Doubles and American
Trap competitions. As a team, The Rock Crushers struggled a little in the event, with
exception of Hudson Werkmeister who posted a blazing 95/100 to not only finish a JV
Men Champion but also posted the highest score of all shooters in the event.
In American Trap, Zach Hinze tied for second place, shooting a 98/100 tying with
two others, but lost in the shoot off to finish in fourth place, just outside of the medals. In
squad competition for American Trap, the Intermediate squad of Woodward, Laughran,
Berggren, Williams, and Smith made it a three-for-three event clean sweep for
themselves, taking yet another gold medal as champions. The JV squad of Johnk,
Hackle, Frizzell, Werkmeister, and K. Hinze took the silver in the JV squad competition.
The Senior squad of Z. Hinze, Leiting, Nelson, Pillard, and Hanson wrapped up the
medal collection for the Rock Crushers by finishing as the Champion Senior Varsity
squad for American Trap.
In the individual Buckle Race Competition, which combines shooters’ scores for
American Skeet, American Trap and Sporting Clays, Blaine Frizzell outshot all other JV
shooters by twenty targets to take his age group’s gold buckle, missing only 24 targets
in the three events, breaking 276 out of a possible 300. Eli Smith missed only one target
more than Frizzell and took the silver buckle in Intermediate Men, shooting 275/300.
This competition marked the final shoot for seniors John Leiting and Mason
Pillard. Pillard joins a long line of former Rock Crushers who will now go on to further his shooting career at the collegiate level when he joins the Western Iowa Reivers shooting
team in the fall. At the current time, John Leiting plans to wrap up his competitive team
career, but continues to compete in area leagues and tournaments while pursuing his
college degree.
Coach Stunkel stated the Rock Crushers are very strong at the Intermediate and
Junior Varsity levels with several of those shooters contributing to the scores counted at
the team level where the top five scores of each team count towards the team
championship. With this strong foundation, Coach Stunkel is already planning for next
year’s team and with the high quality of shooters coming up through the system, they
plan to make a run at their fifth team national championship in 2025.
The One Box Rock Crushers are coached by Dave Stunkel and Assistant Coach,
Jim Duncan. The Rock Crushers want to add a big thank you to the Nebraska One Box
Pheasant Hunt Organization, Dick Phillips, and all of their other supporters who make it
possible for them to continue to compete on a national level.
