COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (June 12, 2019)
A marathon start to this shotgun summer concluded Wednesday at International Shooting Park in Colorado Springs for 186 talented junior participants that fired at as many as 475 competition targets over a two-week stretch.
Competing at the two-day National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) after a five-day National Championship left competitors physically and mentally fatigued. Athletes like Carey Garrison, Heather Broski, Jade Krolikowski and Grayson Davey pushed through to earn medals at both events while Jack Brosseau made sure people were talking about him at the conclusion of the festivities.
Tennessee natives Garrison and Broski might hail from the Volunteer State but neither of them was voluntarily stepping back from anything in the quest for top junior supremacy in Women’s Trap. Saturday it was Broski (Spring Hill) winning the Junior National title by two targets. Wednesday it was Garrison’s (Crossville) turn, claiming a second-straight NJOSC title by three targets over Broski. Claiming third each time behind the Tennessee duo was Krolikowski (Dannebrog, Nebraska), who had a true breakout performance in Colorado to earn a spot on USA Shooting’s Junior Olympic Squad. Garrison topped all qualifiers with a 118/125, four targets better than Broski.
Garrison is on quite a run after also earning the title of Mixed Team champion with Roe Reynolds (Quitman, Arkansas) Saturday. Garrison has been so successful in the event the past couple years, you sometimes forget that she’s still just 14. She was Junior National Champion at age 12 and was the youngest USA Shooting athlete ever to make a World Championship team when she competed in Changwon, South Korea in 2018. She began the year finishing second among juniors at the Spring Selection Match.