LIHUE — Kauai High School air rifle teams, which swept the latest Kauai Interscholastic Federation air riflery matches at Island School, also defeated Mason-Dixon Jr. Rifle Club with a score of 1,093.6 to 933.8 in the 2024 National Sporter Air Rifle League.
The Kauai High School team was led by Sharba Holi, who shot a 277.0. The remaining contributing members were Andrew Sadamitsu, Ashton Keanini and Lea Ramos under the coaching of Keith and Marcela Hornos.
“Kauai High School is competing in the Elite Division where they are currently ranked in first place,” said Marcela Hornos. “Within the Junior Rifle Club Conference, they are in first place with a 1-0 record.”
Levi Kisner, who shot a 264.1, led the Mason-Dixon Jr. Rifle Club from Morgantown, West Virginia. The team is coached by Michele Ballard. Other team members were Chloe Mayle, Liam Ballard and Andrew Rouster.
“Mason-Dixon Jr. Rifle Club is also competing in the Elite Division, where they are currently ranked in 12th place,” said Marcela Hornos. “Within the Junior Rifle Club Conference, they are in fifth place. They have a 0-1 record.”
Kauai High School next competes against Indiana High School from Indiana, Pennsylvania. Indiana High School currently has a 0-0 record. Mason-Dixon Jr. Rifle Club has a bye week.
Marcela said the league is a national team league for high school teams and junior rifle clubs. The league has two parts — an 8-week regular season, which is going on now, followed by the post season.
The Champions Division is reserved for the top teams in the country. The top eight teams from the Champions Division regular season will compete in a single elimination tournament for the league championship.
During each contest, the teams compete in what is known as a Three-Position Air Rifle match modeled after Olympic Rifle competitions, but adapted to high school age athletes. Each athlete will shoot 10 shots in three different shooting positions — kneeling, prone and standing.
Scored in decimal, each shot is worth a maximum of 10.90 points. The sum of points scored in 30 shots is the athlete’s total. The team score is comprised of the best four athletes from each team.
The National Air Rifle League is sponsored by Scopos, the makers of the Orion Scoring System, the Athena Electronic Scoring Target System, and Results, the world’s first mobile friendly result website for shooting.
Marcela Hornos said the Kauai High School team just started this year after being proposed by one of the team’s parents to see how our island kids would compare to other teams throughout the nation.
“It’s a great opportunity to compete, meet and really see where our ‘seasonal shooters’ stand,” she said. “We learned it’s more than just shooting virtually and sending scores through our Orion system. It took some effort and additional time aside of our season and all the work I do behind the scenes for us to keep up with the program we have built all these years.
“The Scopos league also shoots in a sequence that is not required right now, but looks like will soon be — kneeling, prone and standing as compared to prone, standing. and kneeling. Waimea High School is participating in the JROTC division in this league.”
