Thursday, July 17, 2025
The Kansas State High School Clay Target League – 2025 State Trap Shooting Tournament was held on June 14-15 at the Kansas Trap Shooters Association facility in Sedgwick, Ks. The event featured some 1500 student athletes from more than 110 schools. The facility has 20 shooting pads thus 100 participants could be shooting at one time.
One of the teams in attendance was the Beloit Jr./Sr. High School Trap Shooting Team. A total of 24 of the 37 team members made the trip to the state event. The State Trap Tournament is the only time during the year a student-athlete actually sees competitors from other teams. During the fall season, the shooting scores are turned in online, with competition at the conference and state level.
Another unique facet of the Clay Target League is a school, such as Beloit Jr./Sr. High, must agree to sponsor a team. However, the team may be composed of students who do not attend the sponsoring school.
This certainly is the case with the Beloit team. The team members, from Mitchell, Jewell and Smith Counties, attend Beloit Jr./Sr High, St. Johns High School, Lakeside High School, Tipton High School, Rock Hills High School, Smith Center High School and one team member was home-schooled.
Team members are 6th through 12th graders. They compete on Novice, Jr Varsity and Varsity teams. Scoring is in Male and Female divisions but there is also an Overall competition.
The Beloit 2025 Novice Team competed well at the State Tournament. Vincent Gilmore ended the tournament tied for first place Overall and in first place in the Male Division with a score of 85 out of 100. Zoey Stallings tied for 22nd in the Female Division.
Joel Hick, Grant Germann and Wadyn Griffeth competed as members of the Jr. Varsity Team. Hicks tied for 8th and Germann and Griffeth tied for 16 in the Male Division.
There were 366 athletes competing at the Varsity level. In the Male Divison, Easton Gruwell tied for 57th, Anderson Heidrick and Brody Sadler tied for 97th. During the tournament Heidrick earned an award for shooting 25 straight. Sadler had ended the Fall season tied for 1st in his conference and tied for 4th overall.
Coaching staff for the 2025 Beloit Jr/Sr High School Trap Shooting Team are Tom Deneke, Brian Fink, Jim Johnson and Jared Sibley all from Beloit and Curtis Saint from Jewell. Head Coach is Gary DeKler from Beloit.
The Beloit Jr./Sr. High School Trap Shooting Team members participating in the 2025 State Trap Shooting Tournament are: Colby Albert (Beloit) 9th grade, William Cockroft (Rock Hills) 12th grade, Luke Eitzmann (Beloit) 6th grade, Gage Follis (Beloit) 9th grade, Annabella Garcia (Beloit) 6th grade, Eli Gengler (Beloit) 7th grade, Grant Germann (Tipton) 10th grade, Luke Germann (Tipton) 12th grade, Vincent Gilmore (Beloit) 8th grade, Wadyn Griffeth (St. Johns) 7th, Easton Gruwell (Beloit) 10th grade, Anderson Heidrick (St Johns) 7th grade, Joel Hicks (St Johns) 9th grade, Toby Johnson (Lakeside) 9th grade, Miles Litton (Beloit) 6th grade, Caden May (Tipton) 9th grade, Trey Miner (Beloit) 8th grade, Oren Nease (Beloit) 6th grade, Kooper Ost (Tipton) 7th grade, Jacob Prochaska (Beloit) 8th grade, Addison Quayle (Beloit) 9th grade, Brody Sadler (Smith Center) 11th grade, Zoey Stallings (Home School) 9th grade, Clayton Underwood (Beloit) 8th grade.
