Christiansen Caps Season With Top 10 National Championship Finish
Concordia's Alex Christiansen capped his freshman season as one of the top collegiate clay target shooters in the country. Christiansen finished in 10th place in the male gold division at the USA College Clay Target League National Championship.
Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson.
FARGO — Concordia's Alex Christiansen capped his freshman season as one of the top collegiate clay target shooters in the country.
Christiansen finished in 10th place in the male gold division at the USA College Clay Target League National Championship, a multiple-day event which was completed Sunday at the Brittany Shooting Park near Bunker Hill, Illinois.
From Rosemount, Minnesota, Christiansen hit 194 of 200 clay targets to earn the top-10 finish.
"I kind of always like to hope to do better than I do, but that's just because I want to be perfect," Christiansen said. "Yet, it's not possible. I mean it is possible to an extent, but everybody has good days, everybody has off days."
Christiansen didn't have too many off days during the fall season. The Cobbers won their seven-team conference during the regular season. Conference groupings are based on school size. Montcalm Community College (Mich.), Ferris State (Mich.), Mid Michigan College, St. Cloud Technical and Community College (Minn.), Fort Hayes Tech (Kansas) and Indiana Wesleyan were the team in Concordia's conference.
The conference standings were based off 50 targets (two rounds) per week for five weeks. Christiansen was the top male individual in the conference with a 24.7 average, meaning he hit 247 of 250 targets.
"Everybody hopes to hit perfect, but it's not necessarily humanly possible to hit every target given weather conditions and stuff like that," Christiansen said.
Concordia junior Caden Larson, from Hawley, Minnesota, finished third in the conference, averaging 23.7 targets per round. Freshman Jacob Fey, from Hawley, was fourth with a 23.6 average. Freshman Ben Heil was eighth with a 23.2 average.
In the female individual conference standings, Concordia freshman Ati Goble was fifth with a 22.1 average and sophomore Lilly Bursell was sixth with a 21.5 average.
Cobbers head coach Duane Kashmark in his second season of leading the newly formed program said the success in Year 2 bodes well for the future.
"It's going to help build the program," Kashmark said. "The more success you have, the more people who want to come to that program to see that success."
The Cobbers had eight competitors on their co-ed roster this season, down about four from the first year of the program. Kashmark said he would like to build the roster to around 15 as an ideal number.
Next season, Kashmark would like to send five to gold nationals next season so the Cobbers can compete as a team. Lindenwood (Mo.) University's Tyler Marshall won the overall and male gold division this past weekend, hitting 199 of 200 targets. Lindenwood also won the team championship.
Christiansen finished tied for fifth overall among males with his 24.7 average during the fall season. Justin Jerome of Alfred State College (N.Y.) won first with a 25.0 average. North Dakota State's Jared Balluff was also tied for fifth with a 24.7 average.
The Cobbers competed on their home range near Glyndon, Minnesota, for conference competition and the scores were entered electronically to compare against the other six teams in Concordia's conference. The Cobbers finished with a 631.5 score to win the league. Montcalm Community College was second with a 604.5.