Hello Shooters!
Hope you all have a great time at the Open, the AIM State shoot and the ISTA State Shoot! Make sure after you win a trophy that you get a picture taken! You may see it in Trap & Field!
I went down to San Antonio for the Southwest Grand and saw several familiar faces there. One that really stood out was Garrett Helms. He managed to win Champion in 4 of the 5 events! He lost the Singles, then proceeded to take event Champion in the Doubles, Handicap, High Over All and High All Around! Very impressive shooting!
We had our first annual Texas-Illinois Challenge Cup. The weather didn't cooperate with either club, but I'd say we had the worse end of it. Randy Miller won the Doubles Champion between the two clubs, but Waco managed to take the other disciplines. We'll have to come back next year with a vengeance! I wanted to take this opportunity to thank White Flyer for their generous donation. We look forward to working together in the future!
We are still looking for donations to start building the ISTA HOF building. It will have a beautiful display of our history and function as a place to make it more efficient to hand out trophies at the State Shoot.
See ya on the line!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
Hello Shooters!
The Spring Grand just finished in Tucson, AZ, and a few shooters stood out among the crowd! It sounds like it was kind of a bummer.. Going down to Arizona to escape the cold, just to get snowed on down there as well ha! Elise Baker went down for the first time and took home 7 trophies! Randy Miller won the Pleasant Valley Handicap event with a 98 and Adam Fabisiak was the high score in the Prescott Handicap with a 97. His son, Kyle, won the Sub Junior Champ in Handicap the following day!
The IL Hall of Fame building is ready to be built! We are just looking for donations to get the process rolling. We are trying to reach $130,000 and have quite a ways to go. Any donation will help! If you haven't seen the floor plan in the ISTA building at Brittany, we are going to have an addition to the ISTA building for the Hall of Fame, as well as our trophy room. That should help with picking up trophies at the end of the day.
If you missed the Northern Zone shoot at Downer's Grove, you can still make the Central Zone in Peoria or the Southern Zone in Rend Lake. Both shoots will be held on Memorial Day weekend (May 25 & 26). Remember, you do have to shoot all 400 targets at a zone shoot to qualify for the state team. Our state shoot will be held June 8-16. The 8 and 9 will be our AIM state shoot, the 10 will be the marathon day to get any targets in that you are short for penalties, and the 11-16 will be the main week of the shoot. If you are wanting to camp, I do have a large wait list, but contact me at
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
Hello Shooters!
It's getting to be time to get the guns out and start blasting again! Make sure you let me know what's been going on at your clubs so I can put it in my next article!
Several people have been asking about the State Shoot dates. They are going to be June 10-16, 2019.
One big shoot we have coming up is the Texas-Illinois Challenge Cup. I do believe this is going to be a big shoot, so come on down to Brittany Shooting Park to help us kick some Texas butt! There will be $1,000 to the HAA Champion and $500 to the Champion of each Discipline (high shooter from either TX or IL). White Flyer has donated $1,500 for a combined Lewis Class between the two clubs. It will consist of 200 Singles on Saturday, April 27 and 100 Doubles and 100 Handicap on Sunday, April 28. There will be a traveling trophy between the two clubs for the top 5 High All Around combined scores. You do not have to be from Illinois or Texas to compete.
There is also a new AIM Director - Josh Baker. If you have any questions for the upcoming year, you can get a hold of him at
Please don't hesitate to get me some information for the article. I love telling how awesome our Illinois shooters are! Send the information to
Good luck shooters!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
Hello Shooters!
It's that time of the year again. Winter is wrapping up and everyone's getting the itch to go out and shoot again. Before you go out to the line this year, take a step back and check out how the last year treated you. Did you meet your goals? It's important to have your sights set on something for the year. It's what gives you the drive to do better. Just make sure you can tell the difference between short term and long term goals. Both are great to have! You can't get upset if you don't earn 4 yards in 4 weeks though. It's okay to make them tough, but make sure you stay realistic. The amount of All Americans from the State of IL is incredible. Keep it up! Just make sure you don't forget to shoot at your local clubs too. Chasing points is fun, but monthly shoots are good ways to get in some more targets for the state team!
Down in Tucson for the Autumn Grand, as I was watching the scores, Garrett Helms' name just seemed to come up every time with some impressive scores! Finishing with the third highest score on the All Around is pretty impressive. Mike Westjohn was one of the only six 200's on the Championship Singles. Way to represent!
Don't forget to share with me the good stuff you're seeing at the shoots! I want to know what you would like to hear about in my articles. Please send them to
Happy Shooting!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate
Hello shooters!
I missed the last article, so I'd like to touch on a couple things that got left out first. The Illini Indian Pow Wow was held at Brittany Shooting Park over Labor Day weekend. There was a good turnout and they added some gold coins for trophies! The scores were tough too. The 3 Handicap events were won by Rebecca Hackett with a 99, Randy Miller with a 97 and Logan Hawkins with a 97. Singles scores were high too! Carol Teschky won C class with a 95, Todd Whitaker won D class with a 98 and Scott Dambacher won a B class trophy with a 97.
The Northern Zone Shoot was hosted at Downers Grove Sportsman's Club the second week in September. I, unfortunately, didn't get to go this year, but I heard it was a great shoot. Frankie Bentley III won the Doubles with a 98, Brad Bomkamp was the Singles Champ with a 198, John Chapman was the Handicap Champion with a 95, and Dan Staker was the HAA Champ with a 385.
Also, the State Team is final! There weren't as many people eligible for the team this year as there has been in the past, but the averages were still tough!
Men's Team: Captain - Brad Bomkamp, Jeremiah Schultz, Kevin Wunder, John Kravanek, Mark Johnson, Mark Fielder, Mike Hathaway, Mike Dennis, Leland Hassler and Ron Wolf.
Lady 1: Captain - Lauren Mueller, Elise Baker, Ashleigh Painter, Chloe Turasky, and Hannah Martin.
Lady 2: Captain - Anita Knearem, Lora Murphy, Judy Wegner and Sue Staker.
Sub Jr: Captain - Kyle Miller, Lucas McVeigh, Logan Hawkins, Blaine Jennings and Boedy Baker.
Junior: Captain - Chase Horton, Wyatt Criner, Alex York, J T Thiems and Hayden Hemrich.
Junior Gold: Captain - Walter Barnickel and Mason Buzzard. Sub Vet: Captain - Frank Haynes, Brian Hezel, Dave Dressler, Dan Staker and Harvey Schulz.
Veteran: Captain - Frank Payne, Jim Lyons, Michael Obert, Loren Rippentrop and Pat Hermes.
Senior Veteran: Captain - Mike Westjohn, Joe Nehrt, Mike Jordan, Charlie Bickle and Larry Hight.
The highest average in the State of Illinois goes to Chase Horton, with a combined average of 96.6. Congratulations to those who made it! Awards will be given out at the State Meeting at the State Shoot on June 14, 2019
Happy Holidays to everyone, and I'll see you next year!
Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate