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.