Air Rifle Champions

The Nation Ford High School JROTC Air Rifle team won both Marine Corps JROTC National Air Rifle Champions in Fort Benning, Georgia and Anniston, Alabama from Jan. 20-21 and Feb. 3-4.

The A team overall won first place in both competitions with Samantha Zermeno (‘23) taking 1st place individually, “As for me winning it honestly feels surreal, I can’t even believe it myself but at the same time I am aware of not only my hard work but the hard work of my entire team so it truly should come to no surprise that we managed to take first place team-wise.” But as for the individual standing up at the podium and looking at shooters beside me and in front of me, I realize that we have all worked hard to make it to Nationals and are no different from me. Everyone there was an amazing shooter.” Zermeno said.

All of the cadets shot standing, kneeling and prone. We do 3×20 which includes three positions called Prone (a position in which we lay on the ground and shoot), standing and kneeling. As for scoring, we score in which area we shoot in the bull (the black circle) the lowest shot you can shoot is 1 and the highest is 10,” Zermeno said.

When asked about the competitions and the trip itself, Zermeno said the trip there was very long, but we all made it there safely to the Military Base and cabins we stayed at near a lake.

Our scoring for Us Army Nationals was also outstanding. Our A team won first place and our B team won fourth place.” Zermeno being on the rifle team for 3 years brings a very good outlook to the team, and herself. This is their 55th time taking the Air Rifle Championship title with a consecutive 8 years in the making.