More than 1,718 of the highest qualified student athletes throughout all affiliated state high school clay target leagues competed for the right to be called a National Champion at the US High School Clay Target League National Championships in Mason, Michigan July 5 – 9.  Six Hastings Raiders competed against students from Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

National registration is set up as a three-tier system for students that competed during all five of their season conference competition weeks.  The first tier allows anyone with a season average of 21 or above to register, two days later second tier allows anyone with a 19 or higher season average and four days later third tier allows anyone with a 15 or higher season average.  The first couple of years they went through all three tiers and did not reach the maximum allowed.  That has now changed, and this year registration was full shortly after tier two opened, resulting in some Hastings team members being very disappointed.  

Hastings registered one squad of five to shoot in the team competition Thursday against 240 other squads.  Our team squad consisting of Brody Anderson, Tristan Asher, Tanner Lamb, Isaac Nauer and Collin Meyers each shot at 100 targets finishing in 138^th place with 448 points (Lamb-97, Nauer-93, Meyers-92, Anderson-88, Asher-78).  The top 80 teams qualified for team finals on Sunday, so Hastings did not make it back.  The team Championship went to Calhoun High School in Illinois shooting 494 out of 500 targets.

Six students competed for Hastings Friday in the individual qualifying competition shooting 100 targets each against 1,718 others as follows:  Collin Meyers 95 in 402nd place, Blaise Lamb 90 (reverse run nine) in 992nd place, Tanner Lamb 90 (reverse run two) in 1030th place, Isaac Nauer 86 in 1,351st place, Tristan Asher 83 (reverse run 30) in 1,474th place and Brody Anderson 83 (reverse run eight) in 1,482nd place.  The top 400 shooters qualified for finals, so Hastings did not make it back.  A reverse run was used for ties and the longest reverse run score starts from the last target of the round and they count backwards until a missed target is reached to determine the tiebreaker score.  The 2023 individual champion was Landon Sievers from the Calhoun High School, IL team who shot a straight 100. 

At nationals several Hastings athletes shot straights earning them national patches.  July 7 during team qualifying rounds Tanner Lamb 50, Collin Meyers 50, Brody Anderson 25 and Isaac Nauer 25.  July 8 during individual qualifying rounds Tristan Asher 25 and Collin Meyers 25.   

This was a great experience as well as a fun time for our coaches, shooters and their families.  Congratulations to all that represented Hastings at Nationals!