GMC News

Georgia Military College’s ROTC Rifle Team Brings Home Gold Medals

A GMC ROTC 4 person Air Rifle Team and two GMC Individual Air Rifle Shooters were invited to participate in the 2013 4th Annual NRA Intercollegiate Rifle Club Championship this past week-end. GMC’s team was represented by Cadets Markeshia Burton, La Toni Smith, Reggie Kendrick and Dexter Weems. The two GMC Individual shooters were commuter students John Michael Roberson and Steven Cole Lassetter. All six GMC shooters traveled to Ft. Benning, Georgia on March 14, 2013 thru March 17, 2013, for this elite shooting event. The competition took place at the Pool Indoor Range. Pool Range is the home of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Ft. Benning. The competition included air-rifle and small-bore shooting. The previous week, the NRA Pistol Championships were held in Ft. Benning and West Point walked away with the championship. To qualify for this final Championship, the GMC students participated in the National Rifle Association Intercollegiate Sectionals, as members of the Southeastern Air Rifle Conference. This competition was at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina on March 1, 2013.
In order to attend the 2013 National Rifle Association’s National Collegiate Club/ ROTC Championship at Ft. Benning, the students had to meet the following criteria. All students had to be enrolled in undergraduate studies and have not received his or her bachelor degree. The scores had to among the highest of all the other competitors. This elite match is by invitation only and included ten teams and sixty individual shooters, representing their various colleges and universities, from all over the country. Georgia Military College’s Junior College Rifle coaches, Mary Ellen Eaton and Cpl. Brown, received notification last week that GMC’s ROTC Team and two commuter students had qualified for this final match. Other teams included in the Air Rifle Championship were the University of Michigan, Clemson Rifle, Penn State University, Purdue, North Dakota State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oregon State, and University Wisconsin-Superior. The competition took two days in air-rifle and small bore shooting. The awards ceremony was held Sunday, March 17, 2013, at the Ironworks Convention Center in Columbus, Georgia. The 2013 National College Club Championship was announced with the University of Michigan winning first place. Penn State University took second place and Clemson Rifle took third place. In the ROTC Championship, the Georgia Military College team was awarded first place in the Championship and each shooter received a gold medal. GMC was also presented with a championship trophy for being the 2013 NRA Collegiate ROTC winners. The shooters have six targets, of ten bulls each, to shoot in the standing position. From GMC, Markeshia Burton, brought home the gold medal and first place, as the top shooter in ROTC. Her final score was 541 out of a possible 600. Nicholle Miller from Oregon State, received the silver medal with her score of 536, and Reggie Kendrick, from GMC, was awarded the bronze medal with his score of 528. In the Individual category John Michael Roberson placed 11th with a score of 557 and Steven Cole Lassetter placed 22nd with a score of 538. Congratulations to our GMC cadets and commuter students for their dedication and skill in making GMC a contender at the 2013 NRA Air Rifle National Collegiate Club/ ROTC Championship!