Rifle team takes 7-0 record into area meet

Published 10:18 pm Wednesday, February 28, 2007

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County High rifle team will count on an all-girl foursome when it takes part in the Area 2 championships on March 8 at Turner County High.

The Packers completed the regular season on Tuesday with a perfect 7-0 record after a 1,143-553 victory over Crawford County in Roberta.

Colquitt County, the state runner-up last year, will be the favorite to win the area championship and play host to a state sectional match against the No. 4 team from Area 5 on March 15.

The state championship will be held March 24 at Fort Benning.

Gunnery Sgt. Emmett Bryant, the Colquitt County rifle coach, has stressed all season that the regular-season matches were to be used as tuneups for the area championship.

Area 5 has two of the top teams in the state, including East Coweta, the likely favorite to win the state championship.

Finishing first or second in the area would likely keep Colquitt County from having to face East Coweta.

“We’ve just got to continue to stay focused,” Bryant said on Tuesday after the long drive back from Roberta.

Crawford County did not provide much competition, but the Packers continued their consistent shooting.

In the seven matches, the Packers have not shot higher than 1,148, but have not been lower than 1,141.

And their closest match was against Lee County. Colquitt won that one by 24 points, 1,146-1,122.

Wilcox County also is expected to make a run for the area title, although it came up 38 points short in its meeting with Colquitt County on Jan. 30, losing 1,148-1,110.

Colquitt County has perhaps the top two shooters in the area in senior Shontae Rob-inson and junior Amanda Thomp-son, and after seven matches, the two are just separated by just one point.

Rob-inson, who averaged 288.2 last season, has scored 2,015 points for a 287.9 match average this season.

Thompson has 2,014 points for a 287.7 average.

Both have become worthy successors to Victoria Dampier, who was the school’s first all-state shooter last year.

Robinson has cracked the 290-point mark four times this season and shot a school-record tying 294 on Feb. 8 against Westover.

Thompson has shot 290 three times this season.

The two veterans are joined in the team’s top four by a pair of first-year shooters, Caitlin Davis and Dori Miller.

On Tuesday in Roberta, Robinson shot a 290 to lead the Packers. She had a 99 in the prone position and a 97 in the kneeling position.

Miller turned in her highest score of the season, a 286.

Thompson had a 284 and Davis had a 283.

Davis, a freshman, has had an outstanding season, scoring 2,004 points in the seven matches for a 286.3 average.

In just her second varsity match, she scored a 292 and has has turned in rounds of 289 once and 287 twice.

Miller is averaging 283.2 for the season.