KIMBALL -- The Kimball Trap Team competed at State June 7, taking home awards and barely missing out on a state title. 

Kimball tied for first as a team with a score of 457, but ultimately did not win the State Championship after the tie breaker, said Head Coach Brittany Cook. 

The tie breaker in shooting is high gun where the judges look at the top five scores of all the shooters on the team and whichever team has the individual with the highest score takes the title, which went to Blair. 

“We shot phenomenally; I couldn’t be prouder with how the kids did,” Brittany said. "Especially from last year to this year we have improved so much, and the kids have grown so much. You always want that state championship, but to tie and for it to break like that, I would take that any day of the week.” 

In the individual shooting, two kids tied in second place, but after the tie breaker, they ended up coming in fourth and fifth. 

The kids also received their individual awards based on their season averages in their category. 

Varsity is 19 and up, JV is 16-18.99, and Novice is 15.99 and lower.  

Seventh grader Ava Anderson got second place in Novice for females and sixth overall. 

With a season average of 24.4, Nolan Cook won the overall season average award, as well as the season average for males. 

Kimball took home awards for the top three shooters for the season in the state. Nolan Cook came in first, Cainin Sours came in second, and Evan Miller came in third. 

Bryce Eggli earned a patch as well, getting his first 25 in a practice run and another 25 in the other rounds. 

Twenty-three of the 27 kids on the team competed at the State Championships and 11 are moving onto Nationals July 11-13 in Mason, Michigan. Five kids will shoot as a team and individually while the other 6 will shoot individually. 

The kids going to Nationals as a team are Nolan Cook, Cainin Sours, Evan Miller, Jarrett Schutz and Teague Mazza. The rest of the kids going to Nationals are Lane Cook, Damien VanDeWater, Hunter Lonsdale, Trenton Hottell, Bryce Eggli and Aaspyn Tyan. 

“Nationals are the top of the top; they only take the top 1500 in the nation for individuals and the top 240 teams, so it is hard to get into,” Brittany said. “We've had some really great coaches too. Having different coaches and different personalities helps these kids be able to bounce back and forth; somebody’s idea might not work for this kid, but somebody else’s might, so that helps a lot having different people coaching.” 

Brittany says she is grateful for the donations that community members and organizations give to their team and those who give the kids opportunities to earn money through projects and fundraisers.