The St. Louis U. High rifle team is beginning the second part of a two-part matchup with the Missouri Military Academy. SLUH and MMA have had an annual competition for the past several years, and Covid is not halting that tradition. While the Jr. Bills did not shoot as well as they could have in the first part of the competition, the team has been getting better and plan to shoot their best this weekend.

Last weeked the Jr. Bills shot a postal match, sending their scores into MMA while they did some on their end. The Jr. Bills were not up to par and couldn’t seem to find the consistency they needed to achieve a high enough team score.

The top shooter of the match was senior Nick Storer with a 198 prone, 183 standing and a 191 kneel, adding together for a 572 total score. The number two shooter was sophomore Michael Lumetta with a 568, followed by sophomore Tommy Zlotopololski with a 563. Sean Madden followed fourth with a 560. 

The total team score of the top four shooters for SLUH was 2263/2400. The Missouri Military Academy’s scores are still pending, so the winner is still undetermined. 

“The team shot poorly due to an extensive time off of shooting a 60-shot match,” said team captain Ryan Janson. “We did not have the mental stamina to go 60 shots.”

This weeked is the second part of the match; the shooters will travel to the Missouri Military Academy for their second match outside of SLUH. The Jr. Bills have been shooting several practice matches that have progressively gotten better in an effort to recover from last week's scores. But, there is still room for improvement.

“We can all improve by continuing to trust the process and staying focused for 60 shots,” said Janson.

SLUH’s rifle team has several more matches in the works and they plan to travel to Ozark High School for another competition. The scheduling for several other matches has not yet been confirmed, but team members are hopeful that they will be able to travel again this season.