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Cameron Miner of Kingsland placed 32nd among 1,770 individual shooters (top 1.8%) at the 2025 national championships conducted last weekend by the USA High School Clay Target League at Mason, Mich. Meanwhile in the separate team competition, Spring Grove continued its exceptional postseason success by finishing 59th among 264 teams (top 22%). All teams and individuals had to qualify to compete. The Lions were coming off a second-place finish at the Minnesota state championships.
Spring Grove and Kingsland both had qualified for the team championship competition while 17 individuals from Journal-area squads qualified – seven each from Spring Grove and Kingsland along with two shooters from Mabel-Canton and one from LeRoy-Ostrander.
On Friday, July 11, in the first round of team competition, five marksmen from each team fired at 100 flying clay targets (two sets of 50). Only 80 of 264 teams would advance to Sunday’s finals. Out of a perfect score of 500, Spring Grove hit 472 targets, the 45th-best score to advance to the finals. Kingsland hit 456 birds, the 133rd-best score and did not advance. Miner, an All-State senior, led the Knights at 96, followed by Orrin Sovers 93, Kellan Slifka 92, Daniel Lund 89 and Bryce Oeltjen 86. Christian Bjerke is the head coach for the Lions while Doug Plaehn, who founded the program at Kingsland, remains the head coach for the Knights.
In the finals, all 80 teams began again with no scores carrying over. Spring Grove scored 468 to place 59th. Freshman Tyler Turner, who had scored a team-high 98 in the qualifying round, fired a perfect 100 in the finals, the only 100-straight in recent memory for Spring Grove. Caleb Eiken had rounds of 97 (first round) and 95 (finals), All-State Christian Bjerke 95 and 91, Roland Bjerke 93 and 91, and Garrett Waldenberger 89 and 91.
The completely separate individual championships began on Saturday with 1,770 vying to be among the top 400 to advance to the Sunday finals. Five of the Journal-area 17 made the cut: Eiken from Spring Grove at 98, the 125th-best score along with LeRoy-Ostrander’s Brayden Schaefer 97, Kingsland’s Miner and Slifka plus Spring Grove’s Turner each at 96.
Each with a fresh start in the Sunday finals, 21 shooters scored a perfect 100. Miner was one of 37 to connect with an almost-perfect 99 birds. Schafer closed with 97, Slifka 96, Turner 95 and Eiken 94.
Competition was strong. Not advancing to the finals were Isaac Vick (SG) 95, Hunter Kelly (M-C) 95, Sovers (Kingsland) 94, Izaak Morken (SG) 94, Waldenberger (SG) 94, Carter Hershberger (M-C) 93, Roland Bjerke (SG) 93, Blake Oeltjen (Kingsland) 92, Lund (Kingsland) 88, Bryce Oeltjen (Kingsland) 87, Christian Bjerke (SG) 86 and Tristen Aarsvold (Kingsland) 79.
Spring Grove was making its sixth straight appearance at the annual national championships with its highest finishes having been 41st in 2022 and 42nd in 2024.
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