Watson places fourth in WPIAL rifle final
West Greene鈥檚 Sheyanne Watson was in position, barely, for a medal last Thursday afternoon at the WPIAL Individual Rifle Championship after the first of two relays.
The junior scored 105-1x after the first round of shooting at Mt. Lebanon-Dormont 缅北禁地men鈥檚 Club.
Watson鈥檚 aim was a bit truer in the second and final relay, improving to 106-6x and jumping up the leaderboard into fourth place with a two-relay total of 211-7x.
She finished a mere 1x behind bronze medalist Jacob Delfosse, of Mt. Lebanon.
She was able to shake off her opening-relay nerves and settle down for her final 10 shots.
鈥淚 was pretty nervous. I was excited to take home the gold, I guess you can say,鈥� explained Watson. 鈥淚鈥檓 pretty good with nervousness. I mellow out. It all goes away once I get in position.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just me, the gun and the target.鈥�
Watson was in the next-to-last round, so she had an idea where she stood as she approached the target.
鈥淚 was a little,鈥� Watson said of her scoreboard watching. 鈥淚 was keeping track who was bumping up and down in scoring.
鈥淚 was really anxious to find out the score. If I came out on top, that was good. If not, it wasn鈥檛 the end of the world.鈥�
Watson鈥檚 fourth-place finish was a marked improvement over her previous two trips to the district final. She was 25th as a freshman in 2017 and slipped to 39th last year.
鈥淚 dropped my gun before I shot (last year). It was a freak thing. I dropped the first point,鈥� said Watson.
Watson and her Section 1 competitors fared well in the WPIAL final. Waynesburg Central鈥檚 Selena Phillips repeated as the gold medalist and the Raiders鈥� Hunter Wasson was eighth.
Avella鈥檚 Alayna Walther won the silver medal to give the section consisting of the smallest schools four medals of the 15 awarded.
Watson now continues on to compete in the state tournament. The individual and team championships are held over two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, at sites on both sides of the state. The western site will be at Frazier-Simplex Rifle Club. The state final is four relays, as compared to two in the WPIAL Championship and one in a section match.
鈥�(The state tournament) is the same thing. The targets are a little smaller in size,鈥� said Watson. 鈥淔our targets, it鈥檚 pretty tiring. You shoot two targets in one relay, take a break and then shoot the other two relays.
鈥淚 hope I shoot a perfect score, 400-40x.鈥�
NOTES
Waynesburg鈥檚 Colby Simkovic finished 18th with a total of 210.4. West Greene鈥檚 Jade Rittenhouse was tied in 20th place, also scoring 210.4. 鈥� The Pioneers鈥� DJ Jones (23, 210.3), Makenzie Thomas (53, 207.9), and Haleigh Thomas (56, 207.6), the Raiders鈥� Abby Ozohonish (31, 209.9) and Cameron Cernuska (45, 208.8), and Yough鈥檚 Drake Croushore (48, 208.5) also competed in the WPIAL Championship.