Well, a lot has happened since the last story we published about the results from the Nationals in Tunica.
At the Peach State match in May, Rock Clark took the Overall on Saturday, and Mikayla Zayas was Ladies Reserve. Deb Ivey and Bill Mengel won their classes – both getting a qualified win. On Sunday, Lori Zayas won her class, and Bill picked up another qualified win. Congratulations to our Bandits on their outstanding performance!
May Shoot - St Jude Benefit
We hosted our second shoot of the year on Memorial Day weekend. We didn’t have a big turnout, but we had a lot of fun. Saturday was our Saddle Up for St Jude fund raiser. I am very happy to report that we raised a total of $10,251.40 for the children of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We made nearly $1,500 on our silent auction/sale, and Rock Clark donated the $450 he collected for his shooting tips clinic. We want to thank the employees of Infinity Insurance for contributing $3,260 to our event. Leah Brandon, of 105.5 WERC Radio in Birmingham, raised $595 from her loyal listeners. Our top shooter fundraisers were: Non-Bandit - Tim Hildebrand ($1,000), Bandit - Rock Clark ($548), and Wrangler – Amber Gentry ($150). Each of these folks won a free one-day entry to our next shoot in Rainsville, AL on September 25-26.
On Saturday, Keith Gentry took the Overall position, with Rock getting Men’s Reserve. Krista Smith won Ladies Overall, and Terri Clark took Ladies Reserve. Billy Crane got his first qualified win as a Senior Men’s 1. On Sunday, Rock took Overall, with Keith taking Men’s Reserve. Mikayla Zayas won the Ladies Overall and Krista Smith got Ladies Reserve. Deb Ivey got herself another qualified win in the Ladies 1 class, and George Svetlay got his fourth win and a move up to Men’s Level 3!. On Monday, Cody Clark took the Overall honors, with Dad in the runner-up position. Terri was Ladies Overall and Krista got Ladies Reserve. Dorothy Turnbow collected her first qualified win as a Senior Lady 1. Jake Gentry and Amber Gentry won their Wrangler classes all three days.
The shooter tips clinic was a big success. Rock Clark, Jason Smith, Keith Gentry, and Cody Clark helped the 18 participants try to start developing a “Level 6 Mentality”. Most of the time was spent just walking through some courses, looking at them with a new perspective, changing the approach and positions of the turns to trim off those partial seconds. It was amazing how just stepping through the course helped us gain new insight into how we could better manage our horses and our guns. A big “Thank You” goes out to all of our Level 6 shooters that helped with the clinic.
June - Peach State Shoot
The Clark family took a trip to the Peach State the weekend of June 5-6. On Saturday, Rock took the Overall title, and Terri took the Ladies
Overall title. Then on Sunday, Cody took the Overall title. Not bad for a single weekend! Congratulations to the whole Clark clan!
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June Shoot - Autaugaville
We held our third shoot of the year at Autaugaville, AL. This was a new arena for us, and it worked out really well, except for the heat and humidity. The facilities were great. It was a real treat to have the arena footing already worked up when we got there, and the arena staff was wonderful all weekend. We had a small turnout, but everyone seemed to have a good time. The Autauga County 4-H Club set balloons for us – they were AWESOME! They did a wonderful job in the hot conditions, and we want to thank them again for a job well done. The Fat Girls BBQ ladies did a fantastic job with the concessions. I personally liked the burgers the best, but everything was great. The BBQ plate Saturday night was wonderful – so much food that I couldn’t eat it all.
On Saturday, Eddie Vanderslice took top honors, and Byron Walters got Men’s Reserve - and a move up to Men's Level 3! Kathi Kilpatrick won Ladies Overall, and Michelle Cummings took Ladies Reserve. Billy Crane got his second qualified win in Senior Men’s 1. Sunday, Bill Mengel won Overall, Kathi Kilpatrick locked in Ladies Overall. Ed Kilpatrick was Men’s Reserve and Michelle Cummings won Ladies Reserve for the second day in a row. We will
probably do at least a couple shoots in Autaugaville next year - great facility, easy access, and lots of exposure to new people in the area. We want to thank the folks
at the Montgomery Advertiser and Prattville Progress newspapers for giving us such great coverage of our event.
Stetson Summer Classic
While we were in Autaugaville, the Stetson Summer Classic was going on in Guthrie, OK. Several of our Bandits were there, including the Clarks, the Iveys, the Gentrys, Mikayla Zayas, and Kate Marley. Rock Clark won the Men’s Overall, Deb Ivey came in 2nd in the Ladies 1 class, and Jake Gentry and Amber Gentry both won their Wrangler classes! Kate Marley won the Revolving Rifle class. Congratulations to all those Bandit winners!
Cody Clark and his new horse, Gin, had a great start in the Colt Eliminator. He won the first go round, and won and set a new world record on course #54 on the second go round. He ran into a bit of a problem on the final run though, missing 2 balloons. Rock Clark finished second in the final Colt Eliminator, behind Chad Little by just .060 seconds.
We are really proud of all of our Bandits. I want to let Rock know that we pulled the “Fast 5” course on Saturday in Autaugaville. Rock, you would have been proud of us. Most of the folks that attended your clinic in Fayette just sailed right through that course – most of them shooting clean. Jill and Joy hit that last target at about 2:00 – so they now know they CAN go faster! We really were listening at the clinic!
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