Shooters Place in Top Four at Junior Olympics

Colorado Springs - Two Huskers finished in the top four at the 2002 U.S. Junior Olympic Rifle Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., over the weekend. Sophomore Melissa Downsbrough finished third among 90 competitors in the air rifle, while freshman Alicia Sawyer took third out of 72 in the smallbore competition.

Downsbrough fired a 387 on the first day of competition and followed with a 391 on the second day to qualify as one of eight competitors in the final round. The State College, Pa., native then fired a final round total of 102.2 to lead all competitors and end with an aggregate score of 880.2, just 2.5 points shy of Sarah Blakeslee's winning score of 882.7.

Meanwhile in the smallbore competition, Sawyer fired a 576 on day one, followed by a 575 on day two to earn the fourth of eight qualifying spots. In the final, a 10-shot round fired in the standing position, Sawyer, who hails from Andover, Minn., tallied 93.7 points to finish with an aggregate score of 1244.7. Blakeslee was also crowned the smallbore champion with a total score of 1264.1. Downsbrough finished 10th in the smallbore (1,134), while Sawyer earned a two-day air rifle total of 760 to finish 31st.

Both Downsbrough and Sawyer qualified for the national competition by finishing in the top two at the Nebraska Junior Olympics earlier this spring.