Over the next two weekends, the Colorado Springs Olympic & Paralympic Training Center plays host to the USA Shooting Winter Airgun Championships and Olympic Trials Part 1. Air rifle and para rifle competition days are Dec. 7-8, with air pistol and para pistol competition Dec. 15-16.
Registration for the air pistol competition is still open but the air rifle field is set and includes several notable entries.
The men’s air rifle field includes junior national champion and Junior Olympic champion Matthew Sanchez (Tampa, Fla.), who also placed fourth at the national championships; 2019 national champion and quota winner for air rifle at the 2019 Pan American Games Lucas Kozeniesky [1](Colorado Springs, Colo.); Army Marksmanship Unit’s Tim Sherry (Ft. Benning, Ga.) who was second at the 2019 national championships and currently leads the smallbore Olympic Trials standings; Patrick Sunderman (Smiths Station, Ala.), who sits second in the smallbore Olympic Trials standings; and Dempster Christenson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), quota winner at the 2018 CAT Games for air rifle.
The women’s air rifle competition features 2019 national champion and air rifle quota winner at the 2019 Pan Am Games Ali Weisz (Belgrade, Mont.); air rifle quota winner at the 2018 CAT Games Minden Miles (Weatherford, Texas); University of Kentucky’s Mary Tucker (Sarasota, Fla.) who is currently third in the smallbore Olympic Trials and is coming off a finals appearance at the Rio World Cup; 2016 Olympic gold medalist and current leader in the smallbore Olympic Trials Virginia Thrasher[2] (Springfield, Va.); Anna Weilbacher (Leona Valley, Calif.) of the Air Force Academy, currently 7th in the smallbore Olympic Trials; Sarah Beard (Columbus, Ga.) of the Army Marksmanship Unit and
