Four ISU students, members of the ISU Trap and Skeet Club, traveled to the Czech Republic Sept. 22—28, attending the World University Sport Shooting Championship.

“For that being the first time getting out of the country and ever shooting at those ranges, along with competing against professional athletes, we did well,” said Phillip Greco, senior in mechanical engineering.

The other ISU students who attended were Trent Brink, senior in animal science; Julian Miller, junior in mechanical engineering; and Matt Jager, sophomore in animal ecology.

“We competed against shooters from 30 different countries, and even though we did not win any medals I am confident that next year will be different,” Greco said.

“We have already started to practice differently from what we have learned from our time in the Czech Republic.”

The Trap and Skeet Club only gets a few chances to compete throughout the year, said Lee Van Brocklin, adviser to the ISU Trap and Skeet Club and classification coordinator of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

“The club consists of shooters of mixed experience levels: beginners, hunters looking for a means of practice in the off-season and advanced clay target shooters,” he said.

“We have about 40 members with one to four shoots each year, and [we] compete in the National Collegiate Championships in San Antonio each spring.”

Many shooters have little to no background, Greco said.

“I like the people that come out and shoot more than the game itself,” he said. “We have diverse membership as well, with a lot of different shooting skills and almost all from different backgrounds with a mix of men and women. We have people come out all the time that have never even shot a gun, and it is no big deal.”

Iowa State hosted its annual Cyclone Classic Shotgun tournament Oct. 4-5 and some deemed it a great accomplishment to further the knowledge of the club.

“It was a great success with schools as far away as the University of Kentucky and Colorado State University sending teams to compete,” Van Brocklin said.

Other schools in attendance were Purdue, Illinois, Southwest Missouri State and Missouri-Rolla.

The club practices on Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m. through the end of October, and will then close down for the winter and start again in early March.

Additional information is available at the club’s Web site, http://www.scc.iastate.edu/ ~tskeet/.