28TH ANNUAL SEMINOLE CUP

SEA ISLAND SPORTING CLASSIC

PHIL HUGHES PRELIM AT 2021 SEMINOLE CUP

Sea Island, Georgia, welcomed 605 entrants for the 28th annual Seminole Cup held for the 7th year at beautiful Broadfield Plantation March 3rd -7th, 2021. There were very heavy rains leading up the tournament, but Jon Kent and his team did a

THE 28TH ANNUAL SEMINOLE CUP

BY LOUISE TERRY WITH HELP BY HARVEY SCHWARTZ

great job preparing the grounds and redirecting vendors and cart traffic from the wet areas. New this year was a texting service, which was very helpful in getting the latest news blasts out to competitors. Registration and FITASC opened Wednesday for the early birds, with cool and windy weather, but the weather gods smiled on South Georgia on Thursday with spectacular deep blue skies, and temperatures in the high 60s.

Thursday

The traditional Phil Hughes Preliminary, shot Thursday, was set on the Red course by Jon Kent and Mike Bashaw. It was an enjoyable event with great targets, thoughtfully set for visibility on the woods stations while taking advantage of the open spaces on Stations 11 - 14 to throw some more distant, challenging stuff.

That “out in the open” sequence of the last four stations were the ones that either won or lost this event, with Station 12 being the one everyone will remember the most. It was four true pairs, with a climbing A bird off to the right and a steep teal way out in front, heading away at 11 o’clock. While most of us on our squad never touched that B bird, several of our squad did manage to connect with a few, proving it really was hittable if you dared to take it first! In fairness, on most stations where a very challenging bird was

PHIL HUGHES PRELIM

VIRGIL MINSHEW WILL FENNELL M1 MICHAEL LUONGO AA1 THOMAS JACOBS A1 KIM SHEFFIELD ADAM RULE TAYLOR WRAY GAINES SCOTT AVERY BILES LADY HAYLYN HANKS SUB JR. LOGAN NEASE 95 91 91 88 83 81 79 76 75 82 24

JAKE HUTCHISON

89 VET VIRGIL MINSHEW 95 SUP VET PAUL MCCORMICK 89 SR SUP VET BUD WILLIAMS 75 LEGACY EDWARD COUTURE 63

EZ-GO PRELIM

CH RU

DERRICK MEIN DOMINIC GROSS M1 TODD HITCH AA1 LUKE TRUSCOTT 95 93 92 87

A1 BRENDAN RIGGINS 87

B1 WESLEY MILLER 87

C1 SETH CANTERBURY 81

D1 RICH SCHOOLEY 81

E1 CHARLES DEKLE

79 LADY MADISON SHARPE 87 SUB JR. BRENDAN RIGGINS 87 JR. TODD HITCH 92 VET VIRGIL MINSHEW 95 SUP VET LESTER PRIDE 87 SR SUP VET RON JEITZ 69 LEGACY WILLIAM JANKOWSKI 64

presented, the other target gave shooters plenty of chance to score at least half of them.

The day ended with Virgil Minshew scoring a 95 for the win. Will Fennell and Michael Luongo tied on 91s with Fennell coming out runner-up. Texan Haylyn Hanks scored the Ladies win with her 82 signaling to everyone to watch out for the weekend she was about to have. With the beautiful weather, it was just a great day to be outdoors! Also, by end of day Thursday about 35% of the field had completed their FITASC with Jonathan Henrici on top at that point with his 87. On the 50-bird 5-Stand, Derrick Mein and Minshew were tied the first day with 47s with Kemble duPont leading Ladies with a 38. 50+ yards away, throwing an orange dome/black rim target high and away with a lot of spring, coupled with a 50 yard green crosser. Only two of the 316 entrants ran this station! In the end, Derrick Mein’s 95 captured the win, while Dominic Gross and Todd Hitch tied on 92s. Gross came out runner-up, and Hitch placed third along with taking the Junior title. South Carolina’s Madison Sharpe shot a strong 87 to win Ladies.

Tournament Director Jon Kent explained that, though labeled as a prelim, this EZ-GO event is unique in that it is really the qualifier for the biggest prize of the shoot. The top three finishers in each class on Friday become finalists in a highlyanticipated shoot-off under the lights on Saturday night for a chance to win a brand new EZ-GO clays cart. So, the “real” EZ-GO winner was determined on Saturday evening when Todd Hitch won the shoot-out and drove away in the new EZ-GO clays cart! His coach Wendell Cherry was just

Friday

Friday was another nice day with lots of action. The field was quickly loading up with 316 participating on the Blue course in the EZ-GO Prelim. There were three rotations with 15 stations, set by Savannah’s Zac Guerrettaz. Station 7 was arguably the hardest station on that course. The A trap was located 5-STAND

CH RU

DERRICK MEIN VIRGIL MINSHEW M1 THEO RIBBS AA1 LANDON DELOACH A1 BRAYDEN FLOYD

B1 WILLIAM HOWARD

C1 JAKE KINLAW

D1 PHILLIP JONES

E1

AVERY BILES LADY HAYLYN HANKS SUB-JR. CONNOR DANIEL JR. JOSEPH PINCHIN VET VIRGIL MINSHEW SUP VET PAUL MCCORMICK SR SUP VET STEVEN SWAILS 47 47 47 42 44 43 44 38 37 43 41 45 47 43 34

FITASC

HOA ANTHONY I. MATARESE JR. 93 RU ZACHARY GUERRETTAZ 92 M1 JOSEPH PINCHIN 92 AA1 HAYDEN FISHER 84 A1 WILLIAM PARKER 81 B1 ADAM RULE 75 C1 ANDREW DROUGHT 74 D1 RICH SCHOOLEY 76 E1 MARY HUNTZ 55 LADY SHELBY MOON 82 JR JOSEPH PINCHIN 92 VET WILL FENNELL 86 SUP VET GLENN DAVIS 86 SR SUP VET EDWIN WAHLEN 84

as excited as Todd was!

Also on Friday, FITASC continued with three new scores in the 90s being posted to that leaderboard. This event was set by Mike Bashaw and presented challenging targets which I felt were a great test and just plain fun to shoot. Set in the back right section of Broadfield behind the lake, Parcour 3 offered some big stuff with several targets coming off a very high tower behind some trees off to the right. I felt Parcour 4 was the toughest, especially the green C bird that was launched low, off to the left, headed into the

TODD HITCH’S NEW EZ-GO CART!

trees. There seemed to be no good place to take that bird on any of the three pegs before it quickly disappeared into the trees. Parcour 1, which we shot last, was somewhat friendlier because of the wind direction late Friday afternoon. Several of the highest targets were still really affected by the wind, but in our case several others were presenting themselves a little closer than they had been the day before. As the weekend progressed there were only three more 90s posted, so by the end of Sunday, only six scores made it into the 90s. I was fortunate to be squadded with Anthony I. Matarese, Jr. on Friday afternoon so I had a front row seat to watch him shoot a very smooth 93 to take the top spot on the board, while Zac Guerrettaz posted a 92 and Derrick Mein also put up a 90 on Friday. The top Ladies scores were all bunched together with Shelby Moon, Madison Sharpe and Haylyn Hanks all posting 82s, with Shelby Moon being named the final Ladies winner.

In the 5-Stand on Friday, Theo Ribbs added his 47 to the crowd at the top of that board while Haylyn Hanks posted a 43 to bump Kemble duPont back to second place in Ladies. When the 5-Stand finished up early Sunday afternoon, it caused a four-way shoot-off of 47s resulting in Mein, Minshew and Ribbs straight on the first volley. The second volley,

MEIN (CH) AND MINSHEW (RU) AFTER THEIR 5-STAND SHOOT-OFF ANTHONY SHOWS HOW IT’S DONE ON FITASC PARCOUR 4

Ribbs dropped back into M1 while Mein took the win in a head-tohead third round with Minshew finishing runner-up. Some great shooting, guys! Haylyn Hanks held on to win the Ladies title with her 43, while Madison Sharpe slipped in with a 41 for runner-up.

Sub-Gauge

The 50-bird sub-gauge course was set in the area known as the crossroads, close to the entrance to the Main Event Blue course. The four sub-gauge events might be the hardest for the target setter since they must throw targets that are user friendly for all gauges. This event featured eight stations with three or four pairs for 20G, 28G, .410 bore and 12G. Station 4 had a quartering away orange target, an

SUB GAUGE STATION 8

orange bottom left to right crosser and a rabbue. A rabbue is a somewhat new presentation which involves a rabbit thrown in the air similarly to a battue target. Station 8 was one of the most unique I have ever seen, featuring three traps approximately 20 yards in front of the stand. A pair of pine fences blocked the traps from view, with a two-foot-wide gap between the fences. The A target was allorange, the B target was allorange, and the C target was an ATA (orange dome/black rim) target. The traps were all in a row with A being a short rising teal, B a higher rising teal and C was the highest rising teal. It was a wellthought-out presentation, and I watched several squads shoot it with varying success.

The 12 Gauge event with 152 shooters was won by Georgia’s own Jasper Copelan and Steve Naatjes was on a roll, coming in late on the last afternoon to win the .410, 28 and 20 gauges.

Sub-Gauge FITASC

The 20 and 28 sub-gauge FITASC events were also located in the cross-roads in the open area which has held the 12 gauge FITASC the past couple of years. Interestingly, during one of our lunch breaks, we talked to Anthony I. Matarese, Jr. who first introduced sub-gauge FITASC at the U.S. Open at M&M back in 2011. Anthony explained his intention was simply to encourage more people to try the sport by making the target presentations more fun and easier to break than regular FITASC.

There were two parcours, each utilizing five traps with separate hoops for each of the gauges. With 68 entrants in the 20 gauge event, Ron Kelly, Will Fennell, and James Warren tied for first place on 41s, with Ron Kelley being named HOA. The 28 gauge event had 71 entrants and was won by Wayne Knapp with a score of 46 out of 50.

SUB GAUGE

.410 STEVE NAATJES 28G STEVE NAATJES 20G STEVE NAATJES 12G JASPER COPELAN

SUB GAUGE FITASC

20G FITASC RONALD KELLEY 28G FITASC DUANE KNAPP 38 40 43 49

41 46

Super Sporting

Though only held on Sunday, set in the area where the sub-gauges and two practice stations had been the rest of the weekend, 204 entrants took full advantage of the opportunity to get in 50 more SUPER SPORTING

M1 DERRICK MEIN AA1 JACKSON SCHAAF A1 BARTON CHANDLER 48

B1 RILEY DOWNS

C1 OWEN THOMAS

D1 WILLIAM FORAN

E1

AVERY BILES LADY TAYLOR WRAY SUB-JR. CHASE HANDY JR. JACKSON SCHAAF

49 VET TODD SIMMONS 49 SUP VET STEVE NAATJES 48 SR SUP VET RON JEITZ 42

targets. Shooting on the first flight Sunday morning, Derrick Mein posted the only perfect score of 50 for a runaway win. By the end of the day, there was a raft of 49s, including Colin Davis, Todd Simmons, Michael Luongo, Christian Crawford, Jackson Schaaf, and D class shooter William Foran. Taylor Wray’s 47

SAVANNAH’S JEREMY SUMMERELL ON SUPER SPORTING

earned her the Ladies title. It should be pointed out at the NSCA 2020 National Championships, even with a limited field due to COVID 19, Super Sporting was the third most popular event behind the Main Event and the Krieghoff Kup.

The Seminole Cup

Which just leaves the Main Event Seminole Cup race! 524 competitors made their way out to the Red and Blue courses over the weekend for the Main Event. It soon became obvious on Saturday that the Red course was shooting tougher than the Blue, which resulted in a lot of intriguing scoreboard watching and excitement as Saturday wore on. By Saturday night, Mike Luongo and Todd Simmons had managed 98s on Blue and, in fact, the top eleven scores on Blue were 96 or above. By contrast, only four scores on Red were posted in the 90s: Clint Hinton was tops on Red with a strong 95 followed by Joseph Pinchin at 92, then Derrick Mein and Savannah’s Jeremy Summerell both on 90s. Sunday was going to be very interesting!

Sunday Finale

Luongo shot early and only managed a disappointing 87 on Red. When Matarese, Jr. had finished his work, he had added a 96 on Red—in fact, the highest score and the only 96 that was shot on Red all weekend, but with his 193 on top, he had to leave for the airport before the last flight finished. Simmons added a 95 on Red which, along with his big 98 from Saturday also tied him with Matarese Jr. Hinton and Mein went out on the last flight. Already down 10 from Saturday, Mein knew he couldn’t beat the 193s on the board, but he gave up no more ground as he proceeded to blast thru the only 100 straight of the weekend—on top of his 50 straight on Super Sporting that morning, it was a “no-miss” day for him! That left Mein at 190, joining the likes of two-time past champion Zach Kienbaum, local favorite Kevin deMichiel, and Kyle Millwood. Even Todd Hitch, who poured in a hot 99 on Blue on Sunday, couldn’t make up for the 89 he had posted on Red the day before, so he had to be satisfied with M7.

It came down to Hinton on the last flight as the last possible contender. He had a big smile of relief when he finished on Blue with that big 98, but he laughed as he told me his sad story about his 95 on Saturday on Red. Four of his five misses Saturday were on Red 7’s three true pairs—a screaming right to left black overhead 70mm off the high tower from behind the trees, paired with a standard, fastrising teal out in front. It was an intimidating pair, but Hinton explained that he had crushed the first pair, so he felt like he had it made. He then proceeded to “dutch” the second and third pairs for a 2 x 6! Still, he was able to hold

SEMINOLE CUP

CH TODD SIMMONS

193 RU CLINT HINTON 193 M1 ANTHONY I. MATARESE JR. 193 AA1 WILLIAM HEWITT 180 A1 COLTON EVANS 179 B1 DAYNE CADWELL 179 C1 AUSTIN COOPER 173 D1 JOSH SKALLA 166 E1 AVERY BILES 166 LADY HAYLYN HANKS 180 SUB JR BRENDAN RIGGINS 174 JR. AUSTIN CAGLE 188 VET TODD SIMMONS 193 SUP VET MALCOLM PARKER 181 SR SUP VET LARRY FARROW 162 LEFT TO RIGHT: HOA TODD SIMMONS, TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR JON KENT, AND RU CLINT HINTON

on to the 98 Sunday afternoon which put him in the 193 shoot-off against defending champ Simmons.

The HOA shoot-off was the last of several Sunday evening, just after the sun had set and the light was going fast. Given the fading daylight, they agreed to shoot 4 pairs head-to-head with Simmons breaking five to Hinton’s four to claim his second Seminole Cup HOA by one bird! Congratulations to Todd Simmons, Clint Hinton and Anthony I. Matarese Jr. for some great shooting. Texan Haylyn Hanks continued her winning weekend with a strong 180 to top the Ladies field.

By the way, the Seminole Cup was a major stop on the joint 2021 NSCA/SCTP Tour, and for anyone who has not been aware of the positive impact from our flourishing youth shooting organizations, take note that in Fridays’ EZ-GO event, there were 52 Juniors and 27 Sub-Juniors— representing 25% of the field, and there were 41 Sub-Juniors and 99 Juniors accounting for 27% of the Main Event.

We were also pleased to see a special surprise guest late Friday afternoon. Shereen Fiorito, the “gearbox” involved in organizing this event for over 20 years, has been in a tough battle with cancer this past year. A special “Shots for Shereen” event (a mini-long bird) was held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to raise funds to help her in her breast cancer fight. We have all missed her, so it was wonderful to see her, and she and her family remain in our prayers.

As always, Jon Kent acknowledges and thanks his team, the target setters and referees, and the wonderful sponsors who make this event possible, including EZ-GO, MEC, Long Range LLC, White Flyer, Rhino Chokes, Daniel Defense, Cole Gunsmithing, AGPro Brunswick, Outlaw Powersports of Brunswick, Ranger Ready and Southern Proper.

Jon invites everyone to put this event on your 2022 calendars and come join the fun. n

Special thanks to Harvey Schwartz who contributed the Sub-Gauge, FITASC SubGauge, Super Sporting and the EZ-GO Prelim reports. All scores are posted on winscoreonline.com