Butler rifle repeats as WPIAL champion
DORMONT — Perfection — with a little history tossed in.
That’s what Butler’s rifle team achieved in winning the WPIAL team championship on Tuesday at the Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club.
The Golden Tornado’s team score of 798.64 edged runner-up Trinity by seven perfect shots in the nine-team event. The Hillers’ tally was 798.57. Hempfield was third at 796.56.
“This completes the first perfect season in team history,” Butler rifle coach Eric Beveridge said. “We’re pretty excited about that.”
Butler also repeated as WPIAL champion for the first time. The Tornado’s previous championships were in 1988, 1993, 2020 and last year.
“We returned a few kids from last year,” senior Hayleigh Gorog said. “We expected to do pretty well again this year, but having the perfect season shows we did a little better than last year.”
Nate Aaron, another senior, led Butler with a perfect round of 100-10x. Gorog and junior Luke Frazier shot 100-9x while Madison Krainbucher and Tabitha Burke shot 100-8x. Grace Seybert shot 100-7x.
“We didn’t know for sure how this was going to turn out, but we knew it was gonna be close,” Beveridge said. “I knew we were shooting very well, it was just a matter of how it was all gonna shake out.”
Aaron’s perfect score was his second of the season and fourth in the past two years.
“It was pretty stressful on that line, but we got it done,” Aaron admitted. “It’s just a matter of staying calm, don’t think too much, keep your heart rate and blood pressure in check. Do all that and you should do fine.
“This sport involves concentration and patience. This was definitely a team effort and I thought we handled the stress well. We knew what our score was, but we weren’t sure about the other teams. We knew we had to score as high as we could.”
Gorog emphasized that the Butler rifle team consists of friends as well.
“It’s very helpful knowing that,” she said. “If you have a bad day or round, there’s always someone there to support you and make up for it. That’s the way we’ve been all season.”
Also shooting for the Tornado on Tuesday were Shayna Fleeger (99.07), Alyssa Miller (99.06), Lucas McConnell (98.07) and Lauren McKean (96.06).
The fact Butler returned a number of shooters from its 2023 WPIAL championship team added to the pressure of this season.
“With a lot of returnees from a team that won it the previous year, we were expected to do well,” Beveridge said. “We did better than that. We completed a perfect season. That’s what I’m most proud of today.”
Butler returns to action on Thursday for the individual championships at the Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club. The state team championships take place next Tuesday.
