South Panola’s Nick Rudd leads the team at the recent competition at Pacific MCJROTC last week.

Photo submitted

The South Panola AFJROTC Rifle Team defeated Pacific MCJROTC 1055 to 1001 last week in the National Air Rifle League. Their second win in a row.

South Panola defeated O’Connor High School, TX the previous week 1060-970. With the win, South Panola AFJROTC is in sixth place overall and first place within their ‘Air Force Jrotc’ conference.  They currently have a 2 – 0 record.

South Panola AFJROTC was led by Nicholas Rudd who shot a 275 and 267 in the first two weeks. The remaining contributing members were Kayla Walker, Thomas Harkins, and Raven Hudson, Cameron Cosby, Brian Hardy, Kelsie Isbell, Austin Leland, Perry McCool, Breanna McGregor, Jorja Olson, Printravioius Poole, Shaniya Poole, Jason Robertson, Gabriel Sewell, Deana Riveros, Erick Viveros, Brice Jenkins and Anthony Cole.  South Panola AFJROTC is coached by Col Robert Mims.

Next up South Panola AFJROTC will compete against Abraham Lincoln AJROTC from Denver, CO. Abraham Lincoln AJROTC currently has a 1 – 1 record.

South Panola AFJROTC is competing in the Champions Division of the Orion National Air Rifle League. Sponsored by the Orion Scoring System, the league is a national team league for high school teams and junior rifle clubs. The Champions Divisions is the most difficult division in the league. The league has two parts.

An eight-week regular season going on now, where teams compete for their conference’s title. Followed by the post-season, comprising of two single elimination tournaments. Only the top 16 teams across all conferences advance to the post-season, to compete for the league title.

In each game the teams compete in what is known as a Three-Position Air Rifle match. The match is modeled after Olympic Rifle competitions but adapted to high school age athletes. Each athlete will shoots 10 shots in three different shooting positions, prone, standing, and kneeling.

Each shot is worth a maximum of 10 points. The sum of points scored in the 30 shots is the athlete’s total. The team score is comprised of the best four athletes from each team.