*Special thanks to coach Jim Duncan for writing this summary and sharing it with sandhillsexpress.com
The Nebraska One Box Rock Crushers shotgun team traveled to San Antonio, Texas to compete in the USAYESS Junior Clay Target National Championships June 15 th through the 18 th . After bringing home the title of National Champions the past two years, the Rock Crushers had to settle for Runner-up this year falling 18 targets behind this year’s Champions, the Carroll (Texas) High School Dragons. In the team competition, the Carroll Dragons broke 1,430 out of 1,500 targets, while the Rock Crushers came in with 1,412. Marcus (Texas) High School Finished third.
In USAYESS (USA Youth Education in Shooting Sports) competition, teams compete in various shotgun clay target events and for the Team High Overall competition, the top five scores from all shooters on each team are tallied. This year, for the High Overall competition, teams were scored on 100 American Skeet, 100 Sporting Clays and 100 American Trap targets. Shooters also competed in International Trap, International Skeet, Super Sporting, American Trap Doubles and American Skeet Doubles. This year marked the twenty-first year of the Rock Crushers competing on a national level under
head coach Dave Stunkel and they competed against over 25 teams from across the country, including teams from Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, New Mexico, Arizona, Tennessee, Minnesota, Washington and Texas.
The 2023 USAYESS Championship continued Coach Stunkel’s string of the Rock Crushers taking home at least one award every year in national competition, and as has become common for his teams, this year, his shooters placed in numerous team, squad and individual events.
The competition began on Thursday, June 15 with the International Skeet and Olympic Bunker Trap events. In International Skeet, Kaela Hinze was the intermediate ladies champion, Blaine Frizzell was second in intermediate men. In the senior men’s division, the Rock Crushers swept the awards stand with Jacob Uphoff the champion, Zach Hinze second and Micaiah Barber third.
In Bunker Trap, Kaela Hinze was again intermediate ladies champion, Elijah Smith was second in intermediate men, Jacob Uphoff was second, followed by Zach Hinze in third for senior men.
On Friday’s American Skeet Doubles, Blaine Frizell was intermediate men’s champion and Elijah Smith was second. In senior men, Jacob Uphoff shot an impressive 98 to tie for high score, but lost in a shoot-off to settle for the silver.
On Saturday, the Rock Crushers shot a very impressive 489 out of 500 as a team, missing only eleven targets between their top five shooters, which was the highest team score the Rock Crushers have ever achieved in program history. Another first was not one, but two perfect 100 scores posted by Jacob Uphoff and Blaine Frizzell. Frizell’s score was good for intermediate men’s champion, but Uphoff’s 100 put him in a four-way tie with three other senior men who also shot perfect scores, but Uphoff prevailed in the shoot-off, to take the gold medal. Also placing in American Skeet was Elijah Smith who took third in intermediate men.
The Rock Crushers also doubled up on squad awards in American Skeet with the intermediate champion squad of Frizzell, Smith, Teagan Woodward, Hudson Werkmeister, and Kaela Hinze as well as the senior squad champions of Barber, Uphoff, Zach Hinze, Mason Pillard and Lucas Bell taking their share of the gold.
In Saturday’s Sporting Clays event, Jacob Uphoff took third in the senior men’s division, and the Rock Crushers again took both the intermediate and senior squad champion medals with the same squads as their American Skeet.
Coach Stunkel stated that this was the first time in team history that the Rock Crushers had won both the senior and intermediate squad champion titles the same year in both American Skeet and Sporting Clays and that even though the team wasn’t able to take home the team championship this year, he was just as proud to show that the Rock Crushers could field the top squads in two age groups in two events, which he felt is a testament to the quality of shooters on the team and that they are able to succeed on a national level.
On Sunday, the team competed in American Trap Doubles with Kaela Hinze taking third in
intermediate ladies. Blaine Frizzell was intermediate men’s champion, with Hudson Werkmeister close behind in third. In senior men, Jacob Uphoff continued his residency on the medal stand, taking second.
The final event Sunday was American Trap Singles. The only Rock Crusher to take an individual medal was Elijah Smith in intermediate men, and with his individual bronze medal, he also anchored his squad’s score into second place in the age group along with Frizzell, Werkmeister, Woodward and Kaela Hinze.
In the individual High Overall competition, Jacob Uphoff finished in second place in the Varsity division, with a 290, missing only 10 of his 300 targets in the three core events (100 Skeet/97 Trap/93 Sporting Clays), which was just one target behind the Champion, Gunner Reed of the Carroll (Texas) Dragons. Uphoff, Smith, Pillard, and Zach Hinze were also on the Nebraska Team for the “State versus State” competition along with Nick Brodsky of the Burwell/Ord Karp & Krow team, which also took home bragging rights shooting the top 5-Man score against all other state all-star teams in the event.
This was the final Rock Crusher competition for seniors Lucas Bell, Jacob Uphoff and Zach Smith (who was unable to compete because of injury) and the end to their high school shooting careers which saw many individual and team successes for each of them. Coach Stunkel stated that these seniors have provided leadership and guidance to the younger shooters on the team, which is a big part of what keeps the program so successful and with several youngsters on the team already putting up good scores, next year looks to be another chance to repeat the success of this year’s team and another run at state and national titles.
The USAYESS National Championship competition capped off another successful year for the Nebraska One Box Rock Crushers. In addition to their success at Nationals, the team was also USAYESS Nebraska State Champions, and USAYESS North Central Regionals Champions, with numerous individual and squad victories at those competitions as well. The Rock Crushers also wanted to make a point to thank all of their supporters and especially the Nebraska One Box Pheasant Hunt organization for all that
it does to add to the team’s success.
The Rock Crushers are coached by Dave Stunkel, Jim Duncan, Blaine Uphoff and Rob Hinze.
