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Patch's Christina Lowry checks her shots through a spotting scope at Hohenfels during the high school marksmanship championships on Saturday. She was the top indiviudal scorer and Pastch was the winning team.

Patch's Christina Lowry checks her shots through a spotting scope at Hohenfels during the high school marksmanship championships on Saturday. She was the top indiviudal scorer and Pastch was the winning team. (Seth Robson / S&S)

Patch's Christina Lowry checks her shots through a spotting scope at Hohenfels during the high school marksmanship championships on Saturday. She was the top indiviudal scorer and Pastch was the winning team.

Patch's Christina Lowry checks her shots through a spotting scope at Hohenfels during the high school marksmanship championships on Saturday. She was the top indiviudal scorer and Pastch was the winning team. (Seth Robson / S&S)

Patch's Tiffany Fowler, 17, lines up a shot at the Hohenfels High School during the high school marksmanship championships on Saturday.

Patch's Tiffany Fowler, 17, lines up a shot at the Hohenfels High School during the high school marksmanship championships on Saturday. (Seth Robson / S&S)

Ansbach shooters Valeria Mayorga, 16, foreground, and Jessica Sowders, 16, prepare to shoot targets at Hohenfels on Saturday while Ansbach JROTC instructor Randy Dolph, left, watches through a spotting scope.

Ansbach shooters Valeria Mayorga, 16, foreground, and Jessica Sowders, 16, prepare to shoot targets at Hohenfels on Saturday while Ansbach JROTC instructor Randy Dolph, left, watches through a spotting scope. (Seth Robson / S&S)

Vilseck's John Lee, 18, prepares to shoot at the Hohenfels High School cafeteria during the DODDS-Europe marksmanship championships on Saturday. Lee finished fourth in the individual scoring

Vilseck's John Lee, 18, prepares to shoot at the Hohenfels High School cafeteria during the DODDS-Europe marksmanship championships on Saturday. Lee finished fourth in the individual scoring (Seth Robson / S&S)

HOHENFELS, Germany — The Patch Panthers are the top high school shooters in Europe after taking team and individual titles at the 2010 DODDS-Europe marksmanship championships Saturday.

Shooting in the Hohenfels High School cafeteria, Patch compiled 1,390 points to ease past Vilseck, which finished with 1,376, and Hohenfels with 1,371. The victory enabled Patch to defend the title it won last year by two points over Hohenfels.

Patch’s Christina Lowry took the overall individual title by scoring 286 points with her precision rifle from prone, kneeling and standing firing positions. Teammate Allie Carlson finished second with 283. Lowry, 17, a senior, had the best score in the prone category, 99 out of 100, and shared the best standing category score with Katelyn Bronell of Heidelberg at 94. Marie Cook of Ansbach and Christy Chanin of Vilseck tied for the top score in the kneeling position with 96.

Each shooter fired 10 pellets at a bull’s-eye target in the three positions, with the best five scores for each team totaled for each event. The maximum number of points for each event was 100 for individuals, 500 for the team. The maximum for the tournament was 300 individual points, 1,500 for a team.

Lowry was the favorite going into the event. During the regular season she set a DODDS-Europe record with 1,417 points out of a possible 1,500 in five meets.

Patch rifle coach Jack Wayne, a JROTC instructor and trained sniper, said Lowry made dramatic improvement since the start of last season, when she was the lowest scorer on the team.

“Over the summer she got connected with a German shooting club and got some match experience,” he said. “It helped her out a lot when our shooting started.”

Lowry said she started shooting in the 10th grade after her father taught her to fire an old .22 rifle. “It’s a very calm sport,” she said. “In other sports it takes physical strength, but with us it’s all mental. I’m definitely more of a bookish type of person, which is why I like this.”

A four-month season last year with the Stuttgart’s Schützengild shooting club was a great chance to hone her skills, she said.

“With them [German shooting clubs] it is only standing and you take 40 shots,” she said. “We are used to shooting only 10 [in DODDS contests], and standing is the most difficult position.”

Lowry also enjoys showing off her skills at German fairground shooting stalls, she said.

“The Germans say, ‘A girl can’t shoot,’ but I end up with a bunch of flowers for my friends and they stop laughing,” she said.

The Panthers, who also won the all-season conference title with 6,933 points, are headed to the JROTC national championships at Camp Perry, Ohio, this month, Wayne said.

Bruce Andrews, JROTC instructor and rifle coach at Hohenfels, said the championship was open to the top three teams from Europe’s two marksmanship conferences. Ansbach with 1,341 points, Heidelberg with 1,301 and Mannheim with 1,250 completed the field. Mannheim was not at Hohenfels due to social commitments, but shot in its home hall and mailed in the results.

DODDS-EUROPE MARKMANSHIP

HOHENFELS, Germany — Results Saturday in the 2009 DODDS-Europe European marksmanship tournament. Overall score (1,500 possible points) is combination of a team’s top five individual scores. Possible 300 individual points after firing in 100 possible-point prone, kneeling and standing positions:

Team scoring — Patch 1,390; Vilseck 1,376; Hohenfels 1,371; Ansbach 1,341; Heidelberg 1,301; Mannheim 1,250

Top individuals — 1, Christina Lowry (Pat) 286; 2, Allie Carlson (Pat) 283; 3, Marie Cook (Ansb) 280; 4, John Lee (Vils) 279; 5, Christy Chanin (Vils) 278; 6, Jackie Stone (Hoh) 277; 7, Toni Anderson (Vils) 276; 8, Emily Adams (Hoh) 276 (tie broken by highest previous 10 shots)

Prone champ — Lowry, 99 of 100

Standing champ — (tie) Lowry and Katelyn Bronell (Heid), 94

Kneeling champion — (tie) Cook 96 and Chanin 96

Noteworthy — Lowry took regular-season championship with total score of 1,417 in five regular-season meets (1,500 possible points). Patch took regular-season team championship by scoring 6,933 of a possible 7,500 points.

author picture
Seth Robson is a Tokyo-based reporter who has been with Stars and Stripes since 2003. He has been stationed in Japan, South Korea and Germany, with frequent assignments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Australia and the Philippines.

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