By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Nestled in the foothills of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, the NRA Whittington Center played host to the 1st Annual Southwestern Trap Championships over the weekend of October 3-6, 2019 on their newly completed 20 station shotgun range.
The competition consisted of 11 events over the three days at the Whittington Center with cool and cloudy conditions on Friday and sun and wind on Saturday. There were 183 participants young, old, ladies and men competing for prize money and bragging rights.
Among the participants there were six of the seven high schools trap teams in New Mexico consisting of 42 students participating in the competition. In conversation with Coach Joe Whitehurst of the 4P Trap Club located at Melrose High School in Melrose he had a couple of his team members complaining about having to practice in the wind throughout the year. They quickly changed their attitude when on Saturday winds gusted in the 30s at the NRA Whittington Center.
This trap championship drew competitors from the surrounding states including high school senior Zach Piancino, formerly of Raton, from Elk City, Oklahoma who competed against not only his dad, Dave Piancino, but his grandad Andrew Piancino both from Raton. Zach won the 200 Singles competition with a score of 198 and the Class A 100 Singles with a 98 . According to grandad Larry Osborn, Zach has competed in several national trap shoots and his high school team won a national shoot in Indiana.
Jarrod Lies the new shotgun director at the Whittington Center was able to hold his own in a three way shoot off in Class AAA against Dalton Jennings and Denis Bringelson. Jennings was the runner up in that class.
Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association was the keynote speaker at the dinner Saturday evening at the event. LaPierre thanked all the competitors and family for supporting the shooting sports. He went on to talk about the way New York state is threatening businesses in the state that if they do business with the NRA no matter what it is the state will come down hard on them and try to put them out of business. LaPierre also noted that the 2020 election is going to be an important one hoping that the democrats won’t win the senate and the presidency in order to keep the shooting sports alive as well as to protect gun owner rights.
Link to Winners for the 2019 Southwestern Trap Championships
