Waynesburg junior has a perfect effort
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Waynesburg’s Selena Phillips and her coach, Rich Rush, have been working on getting Phillips’ to settle in and compose herself during rifle competitions.
At the WPIAL individual championship Feb. 8 at Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club in Canonsburg, it was as if Phillips, a junior, and her coach had switched roles.
Phillips calmly fired the only perfect score, hitting the X on all of her 20 targets for a 200-20x count and the first WPIAL individual title in school history.
“She was a lot calmer than I was,” Rush said. “I was a nervous wreck.”
Said Phillips: “He hid it pretty well. He was a big motivator.”
Woodland Hills’ Jenna Yezovich took second (20018x) and Bethel Park’s Natilie Myers placed third (200-18x). Yezovich had more true-center shots to finish ahead of Myers. The top 15 move on to the state tournament.
Each competitor has 20 minutes to shoot 20 targets. The first line of the score indicates the targets hit, while the “X” represents a bull’s eye.
“I don’t know if you can expect a 200-20x out of anybody, but if anybody was going to do it, it was her,” Rush said of his shooter.
Phillips has been practicing breathing techniques and calming herself for weeks. During practices, Rush put his shooters in high-pressuresituations like timed drills and pairing shooters side-by-side to compete with one another. It all paid off big time at the most important competition of the season.
“I would have cracked last year,” said Phillips, who finished 29th as a sophomore. “At first, I didn’t really believe I could have done something like that. I have come a long way.”
Phillips typically hits about 18 or 19 bull’s eyes during a match. Rush said he knew she was locked in because he did very little spotting through the first 15 shots. She was able to stay composed down the stretch and finish off the perfect round.
“She put it all together,” Rush said. “I’m not sure what to say beyond that. What else can you say when somebody is perfect?”
Team championship
When you make the kind of deals that Hempfield coach Tom Miller does, it behooves you to coach a team with a steady hand. The Spartans proved to have it before and after their WPIAL championship-winning effort Feb. 10 at Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club in Canonsburg.
After his squad posted the only 800 score (including 54 x’s), Miller held up a bargain he made with the 2013 squad that also won WPIAL gold: They could shave off his beard.
“They wanted the same deal, so we did it,” said the clean-shaven Miller.
It was the third WPIAL championship for Hempfield, the Section 3 co-champion that edged Woodland Hills for the title. The Wolverines actually hit more bull’s eyes with 68, but their cumulative score was 799. Butler took third with a score of 799-60x.
In the team championships, 10 shooters compete and the scores are accumulated from the top eight of each squad.
“We didn’t have our best day when it comes to our X count, but first and foremost you have to be able to run the table,” said Miller. “We peaked at the right time. That’s always key. This is my 10th season as head coach. We’ve head seasons overall that were better, but this team peaked at the right time.”
The Hempfield team included seniors Wyatt Thomas, Nick Thomas, Regan McFadden, Jordan Miller and Scott Yurek; juniors Emily Thomas, Grace Snyder, Kayla Brownfield and CharidanUpdyke; and freshman Nolan Tumulty. Alternates were senior Brooke Todero and junior Meredith Martz.