In its first team competition of the season, On October 10, the University of Arkansas at Monticello Trap Shooting team won second place at the Pink Out Big 50 Shoot “Save a Pair” Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser tournament. The competition, held on October 10, also saw newcomer Ellen Payne claim an individual gold.
Hosted at the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation (AGFF)/Jacksonville Shooting Sports Complex in Jacksonville, Arkansas, the American Trap event featured competitors firing at 50 single targets.
Representing UAM were Brody Little, from El Dorado, Arkansas; Matthew Boyles, from Lonoke, Arkansas; Ace Patrick, from Rison, Arkansas; Ellen Payne, from St. Louis Park, Minnesota; and Trey Greeson, from Morrilton, Arkansas. As a team, the group hit 218 out of 250 targets, securing second place at the tournament.
The competition produced an individual title for Payne, who, along with one other female competitor, hit 47 out of 50 targets. Their tie was resolved in a three-target shootout, during which Payne successfully hit all three targets and claimed the Top Female Shooter award.
Payne is one of the newest student members of the UAM Trap Shooting team and is currently its only graduate student. In her first semester in the UAM College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Master of Science in Forest Resources program, she welcomed the opportunity to continue a competitive trap shooting career that began years earlier.
“I grew up hunting with my dad, so he was the one who encouraged me to try it,” said Payne. She began in eighth grade and joined the St. Louis Park High School trap team, one of only 13 teams in the state at the time, and competed throughout high school. After graduation, she competed on a university trap shooting team while pursuing her undergraduate degree in Minnesota.
“Ellen is in her first year with UAM Trap Shooting, and she has had an outstanding showing so far. I am proud of the entire team’s start to the season,” said Chief John Kidwell, director of the University Police Department at UAM and team sponsor of UAM Trap Shooting.
UAM Trap Shooting currently includes 19 student members (nine women and ten men) from UAM, the UAM College of Technology-Crossett and the UAM College of Technology-McGehee, with more expected to join.
The team is made possible through UAM’s partnership with the AGFC Warren Shooting Sports Complex, which provides a quality venue for weekly practices. The team is funded, in part, by the Wildlife Restoration and Basic Hunter Education Program (CFDA# 15.611) (Grant # F25AF01373) of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service through an agreement with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
For more information about UAM Trap Shooting, contact Chief John Kidwell at kidwell@uamont.edu or 870-460-1183.
Article courtesy of the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
