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North Carolina AIM State Shoot - Photos

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:30 pm
by jcallan
The Southern Zone shoot was incidentally the North Carolina AIM State Shoot. The 200 target singles event provided the particular venue for the NC AIM State Shoot. Although this was not a huge AIM turn out state, North Carolina did have three full squads travel to the shoot to qualify for the Grand. To commemorate the first NC AIM State competition we took a few photos and filmed a video of the shoot-off that took place for second place in the Sub-Junior category.

The first photo below provides a nice posed shot of each of the three full AIM squads fielded by North Carolina home clubs that came down to Bostic to qualify for the Grand. The bottom row shows the Pre-Sub squad, the middle row the Sub-Junior squad and the top row the Junior squad. In addition to these full squads several NC shooters from clubs that cannot yet field full squads came out to Bostic to compete as individuals in both the Southern Zone and the NC AIM State shoot.


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The next two shots show the Junior squad as they were on the line.


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As mentioned, a few shooters came from other clubs to compete as individuals. One was my son, Addison and the other Hunter Eaves. The two often shoot together and were relatively unseparable during the entire event. They were often found socializing with Spencer Power (a youth shooter from SC that got his first straight at the event!). Both Addison and Hunter are seen on the line shooting doubles together.

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I caught an odd action shot during their doubles squadding. The next shot shows Addison ejecting his pair of shells as Hunter completes his shot.


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The highlight of the NC AIM Shoot... well, I expect everyone has nice memories, but it was rather neat to watch...was the shoot-off between Hunter Eaves and Caleb Rogers. In a word it was a nail-biter...alright, two words.

Before the shoot-off, a really poignant moment was when NC State AIM Youth Director, Doug Mckinney, provided the rules, guidelines and motivational encouragement needed to send these youths to the line for the shoot-off with everyone watching. This was real coach moment that I caught on camera below.


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After the motivational talk, both Hunter and Caleb took the line. Having not yet shot in a shoot-off before, I cannot imagine the stress...but I hear it can be pretty intense. The shot below was taken before they started shooting.


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I did not get shots of the actual shoot-off because I filmed it for Hunter's dad, Del. I am still editing the film to make it into a proper MPEG for upload. In the end, Hunter shot at straight 25, which is hard to beat in anyone's book. Caleb and Hunter had a graceful and hearty sportsman handshake after the event that sadly I missed photographing.


After the tensio-filled shoot-off, Doug and Kim Mckinney and AIM National Youth Director, Edie Fleeman presented the AIM team and individual trophies. The NC Pre-Sub Jr AIM Champion squad is shown below. The winning squad included Brian Albea, Ethan Eubanks, Joshua Wesson, Patrick Darnell and Hunter Myers. Shown with their coach.


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The North Carolina Sub-Junior AIM Champion squad is shown next. The winning squad included Seth Taylor, William Darnell (sounds like the Darnell's have something going), Joseph Wesson (as do the Wesson brothers), Darian Dudney and Caleb Rogers.


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Followed by the North Carolina Junion AIM Champion squad. The winning squad included Kevin Mundy, Josh Armstrong, Salathial Propst, Leah Solesbee and Cody Ridgeway. Leah was not available for the award ceremony.


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Each squad qualified to represent North Carolina and their clubs in the Grand in Sparta. Next, the individual champion trophies were presented.


The North Carolina AIM Pre-Sub Individual Champions are shown next. The individual champions included Addison Callan (1st), Brian Albea (2nd) and Patrick Darnell (3rd).


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The North Carolina AIM Sub-Junior Individual Champions are shown next. The individual champions included Seth Taylor (1st), Hunter Eaves (2nd) and Caleb Rogers (3rd).


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The North Carolina AIM Junior Individual Champions are shown next.The indivual champions included Chris Shoulars (1st), Cody Ridgeway (2nd) and Kevin Mundy (3rd).


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All in all I believe that all the youth enjoyed the North Carolina AIM State competition. Addison, as shown below certainly enjoyed it. He said he especially enjoyed the social fun.


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Hope you enjoyed the photos.


Cheers,

Jim Callan