Rhode, Hancock win National titles

Kim Rhode, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist, and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock earned national titles in the Skeet event Tuesday at the 2009 USA Shooting Shotgun National Championships.

Rhode (El Monte, Calif.) won her third consecutive national title in Women's Skeet finishing the event with a total of 267 targets after shooting a perfect 25 targets in the final. Haley Dunn (Eddyville, Iowa), who shot a perfect 100 on the first day of the match finished in second place overall with 263 total targets. Dunn is the first woman to shoot 100 straight targets in a skeet event at a USA Shooting national competition.

Taking the third spot for the women today was 2009 Minsk World Cup silver medalist Caitlin Connor (Winnfield, La.), who also shot a perfect final score of 25 targets to end with 261 total targets. Amber English (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished fourth with 258 targets, while Emily Blount (Tucson, Ariz.) took fifth with 252 hits and two-time Olympian Connie Smotek (Bryan, Texas) grabbed the sixth spot with 251 hits.

Connor earned the national title for the Junior Skeet Women with a total of 260 hits. English took second with 259, and in a shoot-off for third place, Jaiden Grinnell (Port Angeles, Wash.) defeated Ali Chiang (Redwood Shores, Calif.) two targets to one. Brandy Drozd (Bryan, Texas) grabbed fifth place with 242 hits and Morgan Craft (Hughesville, Pa.) took sixth place with 222.

U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) member Hancock (Eatonton, Ga.), who like Dunn, also shot a perfect 100 on the first day of the match, took the national title in Men's Skeet today after a shoot-off with his USAMU teammate Shawn Dulohery (Lee's Summit, Mo.). Both shooters ended the final tied at 268 targets and in the shoot-off, Hancock hit six targets to Dulohery's five to take the top spot, while Dulohery, who was shooting his last National Championship as a member of the USAMU finished second.

Frank Thompson (Alliance, Neb.) grabbed third place with 266 total hits. Sean McLelland (Mission, Texas), a 2008 Olympian, finished fourth with 265 targets, while Jon Michael McGrath (Tulsa, Okla.) and BJ Blanchard (Vidor, Texas) took the fifth and sixth spots with 264 and 263 targets respectively.

In the Junior Men's Skeet event, McGrath captured the top spot in a shoot-off against Blanchard. At the conclusion of the final, McGrath and Blanchard were tied at 263 targets and in the shoot-off, McGrath shot 12 targets, taking first place, while Blanchard shot 11 targets to finish second. Thomas Bayer (College Station, Texas) grabbed third place with 261 hits and Nick Kimbrough (Atlanta, Ga.) finished fourth with 257 hits. Chris Haver (Clinton, Mich.) finished in the fifth spot with 252 targets and Granger DeWitt (Bryan, Texas) finished right behind him in sixth place with 251.

Competition at the 2009 National Championships for Shotgun continues Thursday, July 16 at Ft. Carson's International Shooting Park with the Men's and Women's Trap matches. The Trap finals will conclude the Nationals on Saturday, July 18.