Lincolnville teen finishes third in national shootout

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
Fifteen-year-old Andrew Donahue of rural Lincolnville traveled to San Antonio Texas Sept. 9-14 to participate in the National Sporting Clays Association competition.

Donahue, son of Tim and Lisa Donahue and a sophomore at Centre High School, competed in the 15-18-year-old age group and came home with a third place trophy in the national shootout.

Sporting clays, sometimes referred to as blue rocks, is a clay target game that simulates actual field hunting and is shot on specially designed courses.

Sporting clays offer myriad aerial target presentations with clays flying by at speeds and angles that simulate live birds.

At nationals, the competitor shoots at 300 clay targets. The winner is the shooter who scores the most hits.

Donahue hit 268 targets in his 300 attempts. The winning shooter, from Texas, nailed 273 targets.

Second place was won by a competitor from Georgia.

“I had heard about the competition and decided to try it for the first time this year,” Donahue said. “I’ve been shooting for about two years now.”

Donahue said he practiced three times a week, mostly on weekends, but sometime after school.

Donahue also enters local and state competitions nearly every weekend to hone his skills.

He credits his main shooting partner, his father, with some of the skills he possesses.

“My dad and I shoot quite a bit,” he said. “We do a little actual bird hunting, but mostly we shoot sporting clays.”

Shooting 12-gauge shotguns, the Donahues cut expenses by reloading their own shells.

Andrew said the national competition was sponsored mostly by gun manufacturers and shell companies.

Without giving away secrets, Donahue said he does have some personal assets that give him an advantage over others.

“I’m pretty quick and have good hand-eye coordination,” he said. “But it just takes quite a bit of practice.

“I don’t really have any other hobbies because this takes almost all of my time.”

For his efforts, Donahue was presented with numerous awards and a check for $1,700.

“It’s pretty nice to know that I got third in the whole nation in my first year of competing,” Donahue said. “I really exceeded my own expectations.

“Now that I know what I can do and have some experience, I hope to go back next year and do even better.”

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