School-record shooting sends Ridgeland to state semifinals
Ridgeland High School is on to the semifinal round of the GHSA State Riflery tournament after a stellar performance against Benedictine on Friday morning.
The Panthers, champions of Area 10, set a new program record in taking down the military school from Savannah, 1,124-1,096, and advancing to the next round.
Ridgeland will host in the semifinal round against either Westlake or North Paulding. The date for the semifinal match was unknown as of press time.
“It feels pretty good to break the school record,” said senior Kayla Brewer, while explaining that plenty of hard work had been spent training for this moment. “A lot of practice goes into it. Typically it’s optional, but most of us practice every day of the week.”
The Panthers took a narrow 388-385 lead after a round of 10 shots in the prone position. Senior captain Mackenzie Hunter turned in a nearperfect score of 99 in the first round.
Some clutch shooting in the standing position gave Ridgeland a little more breathing room. Generally regarded as the toughest of the three shooting positions, the Panthers outscored the Cadets, 359-345, to take a 17-point lead into the final round of shooting.
Hunter scored 95 in the
round while Brewer and sophomore Elizabeth Quarles each came through with scores of 91. Quarles found the center of the target on her final shot to add to Ridgeland’s lead.
Then in the kneeling position, Brewer posted a 96 with Quarles and Hunter each scoring 95 to keep the Panthers in the lead for good.
Hunter had her secondbest individual score of the season with a 289. Quarles set a new season-high at 283, while Brewer put up a 281. Madeline Moore tied her season-high with a 271
to round out the team total.
Ryson Haag and Ashlynn Hill also shot for Ridgeland, finishing with scores of 261 and 257, respectively.
Henry Ollenburg paced Benedictine with a 285, but was the only Cadet to shoot higher than a 277.
“I’m really excited,” said Hunter, the only other senior on the team. “I’m really, really proud of my team because they’ve worked so hard for it. I love them.”
Ridgeland’s rifle team program did not even exist as recently as seven years ago,
but Hunter said that lots of long hours and lots of fundraising efforts have put the program in the position where it is today. She also gave the team’s coach, Carl Gentry (MSgt, USAF, Retired), plenty of credit for his efforts in building the program from the ground up.
“He really does a lot of it, she added. “We just want people to come and support us because that’s how we grow. We reach out to a lot of people and then they see what we do here and we let them know how much fun it
is and people want to come and join the team.”
Gentry called it “a huge day” for his squad.
“Our highest score ever and now we have the semifinals coming up,” he said. “We’re just so excited and blessed to be able to do this.
“When we started about seven years ago, we were kind of in a little custodian closet where we could only let four shoot at a time. But we just started building the program and our endowment trust fund from there. The county was able to eventually
build us a range and we were able to get a range improvement grant as well.
“Because of that, the kids are coming out. We’re starting some of them in the sixth grade, get them used to firearms and firearm safety, and they just keep pushing forward. They’re very tenacious in what they do and very dedicated. We had three score over 280 today and it just says a lot about how dedicated these kids are. Most all of them would rather be here shooting than doing anything else.”