Europe
Stuttgart's marksmanship title streak now at eight
Stars and Stripes
March 23, 2021
Judah Zaragoza, from right, Josh Thresher, Jaden Anderson and Lidia Mason compete in the kneeling position for Wiesbaden on Saturday, March 20, 2021, during the DODEA-Europe marksmanship championships. (Allen Ashton/For Stars and Stripes)
Judah Zaragoza, from right, Josh Thresher, Jaden Anderson and Lidia Mason compete in the kneeling position for Wiesbaden on Saturday, March 20, 2021, during the DODEA-Europe marksmanship championships. (Allen Ashton/For Stars and Stripes)
Josh Thresher, from right to left, Jaden Anderson and Lidia Mason fire from the prone position for Wiesbaden on Saturday, March 20, 2021, during the DODEA-Europe marksmanship championships. (Allen Ashton/For Stars and Stripes)
Not even the coronavirus could stop the most dominant sports program in DODEA-Europe from claiming another title Saturday.
The Stuttgart Panthers won their eighth straight marksmanship title by taking the first three places in a competition conducted remotely at each participating school.
Maria Tortorelli, second in Europe a year ago after winning the year before, reclaimed her title with 582 of a potential 600 points. She was perfect in the prone position with a total of 200 and tallied 188 standing and 194 kneeling.
Kaiserslautern’s Aiden Malcom tallied the top standing score of 191 and Stuttgart’s Kate Swett was tops in kneeling with a 196. Swett was second in the overall standings with a total of 580, followed by teammate Leila Ybarra (579).
Kaiserslautern’s Jonathan Stricker was fourth with 577, followed by Stuttgart’s Sarah Fink (575), Malcolm (574), Wiesbaden’s Olivia Zaragoza (572), Ansbach’s Tayler Owens (572), Stuttgart’s Astrid Agosto (571) and Kaiserslautern’s Vivian Dougherty (569).
Stuttgart’s top four shooters totaled 2,316 points, followed by Kaiserslautern (2,282), Wiesbaden (2,250), Ansbach (2,248), Vilseck (2,157), Alconbury (2,136), Baumholder (2,097), SHAPE (2,084) and Vicenza (2,017).
It was the same order of finish for the top five schools as at the 2020 finals, held at Kaiserslautern on Feb. 1 before the pandemic shut down the entire spring sports season. Marksmanship is traditionally a winter sport in DODEA-Europe but was shifted to the spring season this school year after many other sports were canceled due to fears of spreading the virus.
Stuttgart’s wrestling team, which tied with Ramstein for the title last year for its seventh straight crown, didn’t get the chance to compete during the winter.
Competitors all wore masks during the marksmanship competition to comply with restrictions imposed by military and host nations.
Stuttgart went on to win the Army JROTC competition a year ago and Kaiserslautern was first among Air Force entrants. Both schools will compete again this year.