Top Gun: Colton Crooks goes 200 for 200 before winning shoot-off for State Trap Shooting titles

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CEDAR FALLS — By the time you get to the Scholastic Clay Target Program State Shoot held annually at the Cedar Falls Gun Club, you’ve reached the level of competition where just one miss can put you out of medal/trophy contention.

And even if you don’t miss, that still doesn’t guarantee an outright championship.

During last weekend’s state meet, Charles City senior Colton Crooks hit 200 of 200 clays in the Men’s Singles Trap Shooting competition.

Now Crooks has had perfect trap shooting rounds before with numerous 50-of-50 showings and even a 100-of-100 round in sanctioned competition.

“But I’ve never done 200 before,” said Crooks, who had recorded a pair of 192 scores at previous state shoots when he was a freshman and junior.

Though Crooks would later seem to beg to differ, going 200-for-200 on Saturday may have been the easy part.

Four other trap shooters — Cole Henning and Lodden Axtell of the Wilton Trap Team; Ray Callaway of Iowa Central; and Michael Lemburg of Pleasant Valley — also hit 200.

That prompted a shoot-off on Sunday. And that’s where Crooks ultimately proved to be “Top Gun”.

After the first 25-clay shoot-off round culled the field down to four with the survivors all recording perfect rounds, the shooting line was moved back to 22 yards for another 25-clay round. That’s where Crooks missed his only shot of the weekend — his shotgun spay appeared to have grazed the top of the clay, but not enough to break it and to prevent a “lost” call from the judge.

But all wasn’t lost as Crooks’s combined 249-of-250 effort proved to be one clay good enough for the Men’s Singles State Championship and the E-League State Championship.

Crooks was also named the State Trap Shooting Team Captain.

“I wasn’t really that nervous,” Crooks said. “I was more nervous yesterday trying to get 200. I was so relieved to finally be able to do that. For this (the shoot-off), I was just going to come out here and try to have some fun.”

And fun it was as it proved to be Christmas in June for Crooks as his sharpshooting garnered a bounty of medals and prizes, including a Browning BT-99 shotgun worth about two grand.

Before heading to Cedar Falls, Crooks helped the Comets baseball team win the first game of a doubleheader against Crestwood with a game-winning RBI. The leadoff hitter was hitting just below .400 going into Monday’s “tripleheader” against Decorah.

And just to further suggest that shooters are athletes, too, Crooks was also an All-District and All-District Academic football player for the Comets.

But shooting sports will be the exclusive extracurricular activity Crooks will pursue when he continues his education at Hawkeye Community College.

Charles City/Nashua-Plainfield Trap Shooting Team head coach Mike Oleson, who clicked his heels after Crooks clinched the state crown, mentioned that the whole team shot well at the state meet.

Charles City fielded a Top 10 squad that hit 972 clays out of 1,000. Some of the top Charles City boys shooters included Wyatt Schradle (196), Carter Burkhardt (194), Cole Cross (192), Brayden Ellis (190), Brayton Quade (189), Keaton Schmidtke (188) and Landon Luft (186).

Taylor Quade (187) and Mallory Koebrick (180) were among Charles City’s top female shooters at state.

The top Boys Team was the Wilton Trap Team, led by Axtell and Henning, that — in E-League standings — bested runner-up New Hampton by one clay (993 to 992). The Chickasaws were led by Layne Nehl, Gavin Rings and Ethan Swehla, who all shot “thanks for playing” 199s.

New Hampton’s Kayla Holschlag hit 198 of 200 clays, which eventually placed her second among females in the state shoot after Sunday’s shoot-off against Jenna Smith of Mount Pleasant (1st) and Morgan Hodge of the Wilton Trap Team.