The Cyclone Trap and Skeet Club will compete with more than 50 schools from all around the country at a tournament in San Antonio, Texas March 27-31.

The San Antonio tournament will be the end of a successful season for the club, who most recently competed at the University of Illinois March 17-18 in the Illini Spring Break Invitational.

The 13 ISU shooters that attended came in second for the team score high, breaking a total of 1458 out of 1750 targets and finishing first in three out of five team events.

“We’ve been improving over the past three or four years,” Lee Van Brocklin, club adviser, said.

Van Brocklin said the club usually competes in four or five tournaments every year, including nationals.

“Purdue has always been the team to beat,” he said, explaining that the competitor school has its own shooting range. “At some schools, it’s a scholarship sport. It’s a big deal.”

Tim Williams, club member with the highest individual score for the team at the tournament over spring break, agreed with Van Brocklin about Purdue.

“We want to beat them,” he said. “We’re starting to be able to hang with them.”

Williams said he has hopes for the team about nationals.

“I think the team’s going to do really good,” he said. “Last year we got seventh out of about 30 schools. This year we want to be in the top three. We’re shooting to win it.”

Another club member, Mindy Ankrum, said the sport is all about being able to focus.

“You have to be concentrated on it,” she said. “I would have to say it’s 99 percent concentration and one percent skill.”

Ankrum said she has been shooting since she was a child.

“It was one of my dad’s hobbies,” she said. “I just got into it from being around him.”

As for Williams, he has only been shooting trap and skeet for two years.

“I used to hunt back at home before I came to college,” he said. “Then some friends asked me to come out and shoot, and I was hooked.”

Williams said that many people who shoot with the club are trying it for the first time.

“We’re trying to interest new people and get some visibility,” Van Brocklin said. “We’re trying to give a good image to ISU wherever we go.”