Bradford, PA -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Clays Target team hosted the inaugural Pitt-Bradford Invitational at the Bradford Gun Club on Saturday.
The Panthers hosted Merchant Marine and Mount Aloysius, and the Panthers took home the event title with a team score of 676. 32 student-athletes competed in the event, with the top 5 individual scores in each discipline counting towards the team total.
Along with the visiting teams, the event was attended by Pitt-Bradford administration and representatives from the University of Pittsburgh main campus, the Three Rivers Shooting Academy, and Midway USA. Members of these organizations all had a hand in fundraising for the new Clays Target team and providing Pitt-Bradford with a roadmap to creating the team.
The Panthers dominated the leaderboard, winning the awards for highest overall and runner-up in both disciplines and the overall. Levi Merrill was the top performer at the event, finishing with a combined score of 141. He won the skeet portion of the day with a 47 and was runner-up in the trap at 94. Orin Pontious was the high scorer in the trap portion at 96, while Nathan Wilczak won the 2nd place trophy in skeet at 46.
The day started with 100 targets in the Trap discipline. Orin Pontious won the event with a score of 96, but Levi Merrill and Nathan Wilczak were right behind him at 94. Merrill won a shoot-off for 2nd place. Jaydon Schwab posted a score of 92, while Ben McCrory rounded out the scoring at 90. The three other Panthers all missed out on scoring, but posted strong scores. Konnor Eck shot an 88, Andrew Magee an 85, and Gabe Slocum a 74.
After a short break, the competition moved to the skeet houses, where competitors would aim at 50 targets. Merrill won the discipline at 47, with Wilczak one target behind him at 46. McCrory tied for 3rd at 43, and Schwab also finished in the top 10 with a score of 41. Konnor Eck rounded out the scoring for the Panthers at 37. Gabe Slocum finished 16th in the discipline with 35, while Magee was a target behind him at 34. Pontious finished 21st at 33.
Combined scores and Places for the Panthers are listed below.
Levi Merrill - 1st - 141
Nathan Wilczak - 2nd - 140
Ben McCrory - T4th - 133
Jaydon Schwab - T4th - 133
Orin Pontious - T10th - 129
Konnor Eck - 14th - 125
Andrew Magee - T17th - 119
Gabe Slocum - 22nd - 109
"I am so proud of these guys and how they performed today," said head Coach Jeff Cattoni. "We are off to a fantastic start as a program, and I couldn't have asked for more out of our first team."
The Panthers do not have any events currently scheduled for the rest of the semester, but are looking to be back in competition in November.
