CAMP PERRY, Ohio – SSG John Coggshall, 39, of Meriden, CT, claimed the Service Rifle title during the 2400 Aggregate, part of the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s (CMP) National Championship Rifle Highpower series, after clearing a tight competition that saw the next four places separated only by x-count.
The CMP National Championship Rifle phase is part of the annual National Matches at Camp Perry, featuring three days of 800 Aggregate events and a 4-person team match – all fired on CMP’s line of outdoor electronic targets. Each match included standing slow-fire and sitting rapid-fire stages at 200 yards, prone rapid at 300 and prone slow-fire at 600 yards. Both Service Rifle and Match rifles were used in competition, with over 330 competitors overall.
“Each time we put on an event with the electronic targets, our process gets better and better,” said Brian Williams, CMP’s Highpower Manager. “We’ve become very efficient in the way we conduct matches with the target system – so much so that, with the elimination of pit duty, we were able to conduct a full match and be off the range by 3 p.m. each day of the National Championship series.”
“With the success of these matches, we’ll be making a big push to use our electronic targets not only for the Highpower Championships but for all the National Rifle Matches as soon as next year,” he went on. “Stay tuned.”
Coggshall led the match just three points above his fellow competitors. He ended Day 1 of the event in 11th overall before improving his scores on Day 2 and even more dramatically on Day 3 – finishing second. His cumulative performances earned him a score of 2379-104X overall to secure the win.
Following just behind with a score of 2376-125X was Justin Rynders-Patton, 37, of Murfreesboro, TN. Rynders-Patton, the 2022 champion of the event, was the overall civilian competitor on Day 1 before earning the second place spot on Days 2 and 3.
High Junior of the 2400 was Thomas McGowan, 19, of Hortonville, WI, with a score of 2351-7X, while SPC Amber Kingshill, 21, of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), earned a score of 2370-112X to claim the High Woman title. McGowan was the leading junior of the Standing and Prone Slow Fire Aggregates, as Kingshill led all female competitors in the Prone Rapid and Slow Fire and Standing Slow Fire strings.
Additional awards were presented to Steven Paci, 63, of Greer, SC, and Lee Farrell, 74, of Littleton, CO, who earned Senior and Grand Senior honors, respectively, in the Service Rifle competition. An overall award was also presented to Nash Neubauer, 30, of Ankeny, IA, who was the top competitor in the Match Rifle category, with a score of 2382-114X.
Leading the 4-person team event was AMU White (SSG Shane Butler, SSG David Bahten, SPC Amber Kingshill and SPC Dustin Carr), by a margin of five points – compiling a score of 1962-70X.
Find a complete list of results of the 2024 National Trophy Rifle and National Games Matches at https://ct.thecmp.org/24NMRifleResults. Photos of all events of the 2024 National Matches may be viewed and downloaded for free at https://cmp1.zenfolio.com/f456222492.
Don’t forget about our upcoming events, also featuring CMP’s electronic targets!
- New England Games – Sept. 23-29 – Jericho, VT
- Western Games – Oct. 7-13 – Phoenix, AZ
- Talladega 600 – Nov. 8-14 – Talladega, AL
Learn more about these events or find a local match near you by visiting the CMP website at https://thecmp.org/competitions/.
– – Ashley Dugan, CMP Staff Writer
The Civilian Marksmanship Program is a federally chartered 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. It is dedicated to firearm safety and marksmanship training and to the promotion of marksmanship competition for citizens of the United States. For more information about the CMP and its programs, log onto www.TheCMP.org.
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