SHOTGUN SPORTS PROGRAM TARGETS SUCCESS

Culver-Stockton freshman Will Owen’s tattered hat is full of holes.

To some, it may look well past its prime, but for the Wildcats shotgun sports member, the shreds of frayed fabric symbolize victory.

Owen was wearing the hat the day he shot a perfect round as part of the college’s new program. As the sport’s tradition would have it, when a team member scores a perfect round, he or she takes the hat off, throws it in the air and the other members of the squad are invited to shoot it up. What’s left is an unconventional trophy -- a special keepsake rooted in tradition.

Much like the celebratory hat ritual for shotgun sports, Culver-Stockton was built on customs developed over 170 years.

A new sport added to the athletic lineup at the College serves as both a tribute to the heritage and an exciting opportunity for fresh beginnings.

Head coach Brenden Mowen started building the co-ed program and his team soon after he joined the coaching staff in January 2022.

“We compete in American trap, American skeet and sporting clays,” Mowen said. “We’re shotgun only. Everything we shoot at is always a moving target.”

Mowen brings decades of personal shotgun sporting experience to his position. He traveled with the Quincy Quivering Clays to state and national shoots, and attended Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, on a shooting scholarship. As a member of the LU shotgun team, the university captured the Collegiate National Championship two years in a row.

As the first season at Culver-Stockton began in the fall of 2022, the inaugural team is comprised of Owen, a fellow freshman, James Stutheit, and junior Lawren Ruths, who brought home the team’s first victory in both an individual event (sporting clays) as well as being female HOA (high overall) shooter at the event.

“Our athletes have done a great job with competing as individuals at these events,” he said. “Watching my athletes, who struggled in practice in the beginning, grow to be very successful only two months later, it’s been very joyful.”

As he continues to grow the program, Mowen has turned his focus to recruiting efforts by attending local youth shoots and college fairs. He is also busy securing locations for the team to use for practice in the off-season. The program received a grant from MFA Oil to purchase a portable sporting clay machine, which offered additional training in target shooting.

As a first-time coach developing a program still in its infancy, Mowen said he has been struck by the unity the team seamlessly developed and is grateful to be a part of something that brings him so much joy.

“It really means the world to me,” he said. “It goes without saying that shooting is my passion. It’s what I’ve been passionate about for a lot of my life.”

His goal, he explained, is to show the collegiate shooting world that Culver-Stockton is here to compete. And there will be many more hats like Owen’s destined to become part of the college’s shotgun sports history.