SHOOTING: Anti Earns Spot on U.S. Olympic Team in Prone Rifle; Snyder, Callahan, Turner and Szarenski Qualify in Pistol

FT. BENNING, Ga. (May 15, 2008)-Mike Anti (Winterville, N.C.), Beki Snyder (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Libby Callahan (Columbia, S.C.), Jason Turner (Rochester, N.Y.) and Daryl Szarenski (Saginaw, Mich.) all qualified for spots on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team today at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials-Shooting (Smallbore). Three-time Olympian Anti will represent the U.S. on his fourth Olympic team, after finishing the Men's Prone event in first place today with a total score of 2002.6. Two-time Olympian Tom Tamas (Columbus, Ga.), Anti's U.S. Army Marksmanship (USAMU) teammate, finished close behind in second place with 2001.1."I am very excited about making the team, but we have so many good prone shooters in the U.S., so it is kind of a bittersweet victory for me,"said Anti."SFC Tamas is the best prone shooter I have seen in the world and a very good friend of mine, so it is a little disheartening not to have him on the team as well."Anti will join Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.), the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in Men's Prone, on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team in Men's Prone Rifle. Emmons has already secured two Olympic team spots in both Prone and 3 Position Rifle. Two-time Olympian Jason Parker (Omaha, Neb.) finished in third place overall in Men's Prone with a total score of 1999.5 Parker has already secured a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team in Men's Air Rifle. Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wis.) finished in fourth place with 1997.9 and 1996 Olympian Eric Uptagrafft (Spokane, Wash.) took fifth place with 1997.3. Shane Barnhart (Ashley, Ohio) finished in sixth place with 1990.8, while Glenn Sulser (Burlington, Wis.) ended in the seventh spot with 1987.9. The top seven finishers in Men's Prone Rifle are all members of the USAMU. In Women's Sport Pistol, three-time Olympian Snyder (Colorado Springs, Colo.) earned her second spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, finishing on top with 2136.1 points. Snyder will represent the U.S. in both Women's Sport Pistol and Women's Air Pistol at the Beijing Olympic Games. Fifty-six year old three-time Olympian Callahan landed a spot on her fourth U.S. Olympic Team today, finishing the Women's Sport Pistol competition in second place with 2129.2 points. Sandra Uptagrafft (Los Angeles, Calif.), the 2007 Pan American Games gold medalist, took third place with 2123.7. Elisabeta Nishica (Acworth, Ga.), Diana Nee (Arcadia, Calif.) and Vladimira Borisova (Elgin, Ill.), finished in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively with total scores of 2106.3, 2104.6 and 2100.8. Heather Deppe (San Antonio, Texas) took seventh place with 2054.8 and Brenda Shinn (Riverside, Calif.) finished in eighth place with 2047.9 points. In Men's Free Pistol, 2004 Olympian Turner qualified for his second consecutive U.S. Olympic Team today, finishing in first place with 1868.7 points. Two-time Olympian and USAMU member Daryl Szarenski (Saginaw, Mich.) will represent the U.S. on his third U.S. Olympic Team, taking second place with a total score of 1849.3. John Zurek (Chandler, Ariz.) finished right behind Szarenski in third place with 1847.9. USAMU member Thomas Rose (Central Point, Ore.) took fourth place with 1833.3 and Brian Beaman (Selby, S.D.) finished in fifth place with 1819.0. Cody Owsley (Tonganoxie, Kan.), Rich Gray (Fredericksburg, Va.) and Jay Shi (Gilbert, Ariz.) finished in sixth, seventh and eighth places with scores of 1810.5, 1802.4 and 1788.7 respectively. The U.S. earned a total of seven 2008 Olympic quota slots for pistol (women's air-1, men's air-1, men's free-2, women's sport-2 and men's rapid fire-1). A slot equals a person, so because Beki Snyder and Jason Turner already qualified in Air Pistol, and are now doubling in Sport Pistol and Free Pistol respectively, Brenda Shinn and Brian Beaman, who were the second place finishers at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Airgun, have now qualified for spots on the U.S. Olympic Team in Air Pistol. There will be seven total people competing in pistol at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Over 170 top rifle and pistol shooters from around the United States are competing for spots on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials-Shooting (Smallbore) May 12-22 at Ft. Benning's International Shooting Complex in Columbus, Ga., home of the USAMU. The U.S. Olympic Team Trials-Shooting is a collaborative partnership between the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and USA Shooting. In smallbore rifle, there is one U.S. Olympic team spot available for Men's Prone and Men's 3-Position (Matt Emmons has already secured a spot in both Prone and 3P) and there are two spots available in Women's 3-Position. In pistol, there are two U.S. Olympic team spots available for Men's Free Pistol and one spot in Men's Rapid Fire Pistol. There are two spots for Women's Sport Pistol. The rifle/pistol athletes will be selected to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team based on a combination of the three days of match scores, plus each athlete's top two finals scores. The USOC has final approval of all U.S. Olympic Team members. For complete U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Shooting (Smallbore) results, please visit www.usashooting.org. 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials-Shooting (Smallbore) Competition Schedule Friday, May 16 Men's Rapid Fire Pistol official training Men's 3-Position Rifle official training Saturday, May 17 Men's Rapid Fire Pistol match and finals Men's 3-Position Rifle match and finals Sunday, May 18 Men's Rapid Fire Pistol match and finals Men's 3-Position Rifle match and finals Monday, May 19 (Selection of Olympic Team members for Men's Rapid Fire Pistol and Men's 3-Position Rifle) Men's Rapid Fire Pistol match, finals and awards Men's 3-Position Rifle match, finals and awards Women's 3-Position Rifle official training Tuesday, May 20 Women's 3-Position Rifle match and finals Wednesday, May 21 Women's 3-Position Rifle match and finals Thursday, May 22 (Selection of Olympic Team members for Women's 3-Position Rifle) Women's 3-Position Rifle match, finals and awards

Tags: Brenda Shinn, Brian Beaman, Daryl Szarenski, Diana Nee, Elisabeta Nishica, Eric Uptagraff, Jason Parker, Jason Turner, Michael McPhail, Sandra Uptagrafft, Thomas Rose, Vladimira Borisova