Park Rapids High School hangs on to win Minnesota’s team trap shooting championship

Five high school trap shooters from Park Rapids jumped to an early lead Friday, then hung on to win the Minnesota State High School League’s clay target team championship.

Park Rapids senior Zach Paurus and junior Frank Southerton led the way for the Clay Dusters, each breaking 99 of 100 targets released for them at the woodsy Minneapolis Gun Club. It was the first team championship for Park Rapids in eight appearances at the annual event, the only high school trap shooting tournament in the country that’s sanctioned by a state athletic association.

Statewide in Minnesota, 10,900 students registered to shoot clay targets on high school trap teams this spring.

Robin and Jodi Walsh, the husband-and-wife coaching team for Park Rapids, said they’ll proudly deliver their team’s championship trophy to Huntersville Sportsmen’s Park, their home shooting range.

“There’s lots and lots of fist bumps right now,” Jodi said.

The competition was broken into two rounds. In each round, every shooter toed the line for 50 shot attempts. Park Rapids was first on the leaderboard after the initial round but misfired a few times in the second. It was mildly breezy at the gun range, but conditions were generally good.

“We kind of fell off in round two, but so did the other top teams,” Robin Walsh said. “I’m pretty excited we held on.”

In a field of 39 teams from around the state that qualified for the finals, Park Rapids beat runner-up Spring Grove High School by three shots. The Clay Busters hit 486 of 500 targets versus 483 by Spring Grove. Finishing third was Lakeville South with a score of 479.

Coming into the finals, Hibbing High School was among the favorites. The Bluejackets were fresh off a first-place finish at the annual Alexandria shootout, outscoring 347 other teams.

But in the finals, Hibbing’s top guns flamed out, and the team finished next to last. Defending champion Prior Lake High School finished seventh Friday with a score of 471.

Hibbing Coach Alex Seppala shrugged it off. None of his shooters had ever been to the finals, and the team was trying to win its first-ever state championship in trap shooting.

“I think it was nerves and being around a lot of really good shooters,” Seppala said.

He said the team is young and hopes to return. “It’s a reward for them to be down here, so that’s a positive,” Seppala said.

The Bluejackets planned to wear cutoff jeans as a gimmick for Friday’s championship rounds, but they decided in the end to be “classy” and wear conventional attire, said coach Nick Seppala, Alex’s brother.

Both coaches changed into cut-off jeans and cowboy boots to watch the afternoon competition between individuals. Team members Mikko Glad and Wyatt Story, two of four Hibbing shooters who qualified for individual competition, joined the fun by wearing “jorts” to their individual final rounds.

In the individual competition, Foley High School student Delayna Rife won the girls’ championship by shooting 98 of 100. Three shooters tied for first place in the boys’ individual competition, each scoring a perfect 100. They were Marcus Berger of LeSueur-Henderson, Mitchell Kelvie of Lakeville South and Ethan Madsen of Fairmont.