Camp Perry 2009: National Championship

For those who’ve followed the developing scores over the past several days, it’s been an exciting competition.

The big question has been will Brian Zins be able to capture the national championship for the tenth time or will it go to someone else this year?

And the results are in; the winner is Jim Henderson with 2646-141 followed by Philip Hemphill at 2642-129 and Brian Zins in third with 2637-131.

You should note that the difference is a mere 9 points. In the 2700, a total of 27 targets were filled with 10 shots each. Of those 270 shots, if a mere 3.3% of them had been pulled inward for one more point, Brian would have won.

Now that’s close!

Also in the top finishers is an Arizona shooter and friend, John Zurek, at 2624-112. John takes 5th place in the national championship. Way to go, John!

John’s performance in the Rapid Fire match today was 199-12 placing him just behind another Arizona shooter, Steve Reiter, at 199-13, for 3rd and 2nd places, respectively, in that match. John’s score equaled that of Jim Henderson, by the way, and out X’d Brian Zins’ score of 199-11.

And Steve Reiter took #20 in the national ranking. (The first targets I ever scored in competition were Steve’s. Finding the edges of ten rounds in that one large hole at the center of some of his targets can be a real challenge.)

Somewhat farther down but still on the first page of finishers for the national championship is another Arizonan, Robert “Bob” Throne, with 2559-89. Bob was competing in the Master class at Perry but when I shot against him earlier this year, he was a lowly Sharpshooter. Yes, you can move up that ladder really fast when your shooting merits the rewards.

A recent Arizona adoptee, Tony Silva, also finished on the first page of the national rankings with 2547-84.

Several other Arizonans competed this year and won leg points, individual matches within their classifications and, undoubtedly, just had an all around great time.

Speaking as an outsider watching from the side lines, everyone who competed sure made for a great time even from this distance.

And if watching from home can be this much fun, I can barely contain my excitement at how much more it must be to be there in person.

My pledge for 2010 is to hear, first hand,