Mount Pulaski Hilltoppers Shotgun
Sports team wins Sporting Clays State Tournament
[June 16, 2025]
The Mount Pulaski Hilltoppers Shotgun Sports team won the
2025 Sporting Clays State Championship on Saturday at NILO Farms in
Brighton, completing their sweep of the state championships in all
three Illinois High School Clay Target League state tournaments.
In recent weeks the team won both the 2025 Skeet State Championship
and the 2025 Trap State Championship.
Mount Pulaski has made history by becoming the first team to win all
three events in the same year. Impressive!
“The third tournament of the year was Sporting Clays,” said coach
Corey Leonard. “It is a relatively new shooting sport, and this was
just the second year for the state tournament for it. We won it last
year and our top shooter, Colton Romines, who won the individual
competition last year was returning. So, you might think we were the
favorite going in, but there was more than double the number of
participants this year versus last year. So, we had our work cut out
for us.”
“As for the trifecta, it was truly a team effort,” said Leonard.
“For the tournaments, your top five scores count as your team score,
and we didn’t have one shooter that was our top five scorer in all
three tournaments. We had several different athletes step up for the
team.”
2025 Sporting Clays State Champions: Top 5 individuals overall
Colton Romines 90/100
Kyle Marten 87/100
Eva Leonard 79/100
Brady McLaughlin 79/100
Beau Tschantz 78/100
Team scores:
1) Mount Pulaski 413
2) West Central High School 399
3) Metamora 381
Individual medal winners were:
Male Varsity 2nd place and 2nd overall: Colton Romines 90/100
Male Junior Varsity 1st place: Kyle Marten 87/100
Male Novice 2nd place: Zachary Potts 69/100
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Reese Winebrinner, Audrey Meister and Eva Leonard were the top three
female novice medalists. Photo courtesy of MPHS Shotgun Sports
Mount Pulaski also had three girls finish in the top spots of the
Female Novice category and another girl ranked fifth.
“It was great to see the success of three of our girls sweeping the
top three spots in the novice category and Eva (Leonard) was one of
our top five scores for the entire team, so that meant her score
counted for the team win as well,” said Leonard.
Female Novice:
1st place: Eva Leonard (2nd overall female individual) 79/100
2nd place: Reece Winebrinner 69/100
3rd place: Audrey Meister 65/100
Newcomer Danielle Luka shot 45/100 for 5th place in this category.
Next up for these shooters is the USAHSCTL National Championship in
Mason, Michigan. Mount Pulaski lost the national title last year by
one target. Approximately 1800 kids shoot at nationals. This event
will run from July 9, 2025 thru July 13, 2025.
Congratulations, Toppers!
[Teena Lowery]
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