Hempfield brings home WPIAL rifle team championship

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, February 6, 2018 | 10:00 PM

The Hempfield rifle team regained its spot atop the WPIAL on Tuesday, capturing the program's third district title.

The Spartans shot a perfect 800 with 54 bull's-eyes to edge Woodland Hills (799-68x) and Butler (799-60x) at Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen's Club.

“They shot well,” said Hempfield coach Tom Miller, whose team also won in 2010 and ‘13. “The ‘X' count was down a little from what we typically look for. We were the only team to shoot an 800. Not the best we've shot, but it was good enough to get it done.”

Regan McFadden shot 100-9x to lead Hempfield (7-1), which was the Section 3 co-champion with Butler.

Also scoring for the Spartans were Emily Thomas (100-7x), Nick Thomas (100-5x), Kayla Brownfield (100-8x), Jordan Miller (100-6x), Charidan Updyke (100-8x), Scott Yurek (100-6x) and Nolan Tumuty (100-5x). Wyatt Thomas (99-5x) and Grace Snyder (99-6x) also shot for Hempfield.

Each team entered 10 shooters, and the top eight scores were accumulated to arrive at the team score.

Trinity, which bested Penn-Trafford and West Greene in a wild card match last Friday to earn a spot in the championship field, placed fourth (798-62x).

Rounding out the standings were Mt. Lebanon (797-62x), Waynesburg (795-53x) and McGuffey (795-51x).

Jerome Hall and Lavonte Sanders, both from Woodland Hills, shot perfect 100-10x scores and led the all-tournament team.

Also earning spots on the all-tournament team were McFadden; Waynesburg's Selena Phillips (100-9x); McGuffey's Aidan Brookman (100-9x); Woodland Hills' Jenna Yezovich (100-9x); Mt. Lebanon's Tristan Long (100-9x); Butler's Andrew Arbanas (100-9x), Tiffany Carlson (100-9x) and Chase Runyan (100-9x); and Trinity's Azriel Florian (100-9x) and Gage Martin (100-9x).

The WPIAL individual championship is at noon Thursday, also at the Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen's Club.

Miller is the defending WPIAL champion.

The Spartans will take part in the state championships next Wednesday at Frazier-Simplex Sportsmen's Club.

Michael Love and Bill Hartlep are Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach them at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Butler, Hempfield Area, McGuffey, Mt. lebanon, Trinity, Waynesburg, Waynesburg Central, Woodland Hills