Washington's Birthday Match 2007
Now in its 115th consecutive year the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association’s Washington’s Birthday High Power Rifle Match is the longest running high power rifle match in the country.
The course of fire is teams of four shooters firing the standard 50-shot National Match Course from 200 yards using reduced targets to simulate the 300 and 600 yard stages. Team members are allowed to coach each other or they may have a dedicated team coach.
This year 43 teams totaling 167 shooters filled the firing line at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility on Sunday 18 February 2007. Four of those teams came from Tucson Rifle Club:
TRC Black – Karl Kasarda, Cecil Rico, Jeff Schneider, Pete Wolf
TRC Red – Bud Geymer, Phil and Stacy McGrath, Tom Woodrow
TRC Gold – Mark Decker, Jim Denovchek, Maury Krupp, Bill Orzechowski, Rick Smart (coach/captain)
TRC Silver – Sandy Froman (yes, that Sandy Froman, the NRA President ), Lee McKinney, Don Travers, John Wells
Tom, Mark, Sandy, and John were the tyros shooting their first Washington’s Birthday Match this year.
Conditions were almost perfect for the first pair of shooters. Calm winds and high clouds helped produce the high scores seen all up and down the line. After a break for lunch the second pair of shooters fired. By then the afternoon wind had come up a bit and the sun was out. This brought some slightly lower scores but overall you couldn’t have asked for a better day.
Karl, Cecil, Jeff, and Maury all posted Master class scores of 470 or better earning spots in the post-match sudden death shoot-off. All were eliminated before the end but they were up there trying.
When all shooting was complete the match sponsors asked Sandy to help present the awards. So every award winner now has a “grip-and-grin” photo with the NRA President in her bright red no-doubt-who-she-was-shooting-for Tucson Rifle Club sweatshirt!
Tucson Rifle Club’s teams all finished in the top third:
TRC Black finished Second scoring 1894-40X out of a possible 2000-200X (just 43 points shy of first place)
TRC Gold was Seventh with a score of 1799-29X
TRC Silver placed Ninth scoring 1713-15X
TRC Red came in 14th with 1576-16X
Individual scores and place standings were:
10. Karl Kasarda 480-11X
12, Cecil Rico 479-9X
13. Jeff Schneider 478-12X
16. Maury Krupp 470-9X
17. Jim Denovcheck 468-11X
21. Tyler Rico 462-3X (shooting with the Third Place Arizona Junior-Kirby team)
25. Don Travers 458-6X
26. Pete Wolf 457-8X
31. Bill Orzechowski 453-6X
43. John Wells 441-4X
58. Phil McGrath 423-6X
65. Sandy Froman 417-3X
68. Mark Decker 408-3X
69. Stacy McGrath 403-3X
73. Lee McKinney 397-2X
83. Tom Woodrow 381-1X
92. Bud Geymer 369-6X
