Ocean State Smallbore Shooters at the National Championship
Robert Andreozzi, Ruby Gomes, Joe Graf, Michele Makucevich, Danielle Makucevich and Hap Rocketto all made the long trip along I80 to participate in the NRA National Outdoor Smallbore Rifle Championships in Bristol, Indiana.
The National Championship has three phases, conventional prone, conventional position and metric position and Rhode Island was represented in all three.
Michele Makucevich, Graf, Gomes, Rocketto, and Andreozzi all shot prone with Makucevich walking away with state bragging rights as she finished in 18th place over all. Along the way she earned a berth on the prestigious all ladies Randle Team, as did Gomes, an international postal match sponsored by the National Rifle Association and fired against English speaking nations world-wide. Danielle coached her mother in the event.
Conditions were good and competition was tough as evidenced in one 50-yard iron sight match where Graf, Makucevich, Rocketto, and Gomes all shot perfect score but did not even get a sniff at prize money because they did not have enough center shots. Of course that might be expected in a match in which there was a three-way unbreakable tie for first; the top scores being a trio of 400-40X.
Gomes was the first to win a place award on day three with a 400-32X in the any sight 50-meter match and did so again in the any sight Dewar match. Ruby ended the prone championship as the third over-all in the intermediate junior class.
Rocketto was selected as coach of the Lord Dewar International Postal Match and will serve as team captain in 2017. The Dewar Match is, like the Randle, an international event contested by English speaking nations and is sponsored by the National Smallbore Rifle Association of Great Britain.
The President of the NRA had appointed Graf as Adjutant of the Drew Cup International Postal team. He assumed his duties and organized an all junior team which fired 60 shots prone on the metric target. Gomes earned a place on her second international team of the tournament.
Conventional position began and Gomes made her mark early placing as second Master in the metallic sight kneeling match. She was third Master in standing while Graf grabbed fifth Expert in kneeling. At the end of the day Gomes was in second civilian and fifth place over all. Although not placing in class or category in the any sight match Gomes’ consist performance saw her place as third civilian.
In metric position Gomes placed fourth overall in the iron sight standing match and earned first civilian honors in the metallic sight aggregate. Another first Master place, this time in any sights standing, would serve her in good stead as she closed the match with a second place Master score in kneeling which saw her finish as third overall in the any sight phase. Consistent shooting earned her the bronze medal in the Metric National Championship.
Gomes closed out the 2017 championships by placing third overall in the Iron Man Match and was presented a silver belt buckle, about the size of a Volkswagen hubcap, in recognition of having the third highest aggregate score in the prone and position championships.
While Gomes took home the lion’s share of the Rhode Island swag from Bristol the rest of the shooters also gained experience and will be back next year looking to improve.
