Unlike many of the tournaments on the NSCA Championship Tour, this tour stop was hosted by a shooting club that is new to the scene when it comes to previously holding tour stop shoots. The 2023 Western Regional was held at Longmeadow Clays Club in Wiggins, Colorado from August 2nd - 6th. This was a nice change of scenery for the competitors as they had the opportunity to experience a venue that almost no one had been to before. The landscape was very open and flat prairie country in the northwestern corner of the state. Throughout the entire week all target presentations across the board were rather easy and soft with little challenge presented through distance and speed. However, even though the targets may have not been extremely tough, it gave the shooters a different kind of challenge which was shooting under much pressure knowing that the margin for error was so small, and that if a competitor was in fact to miss it would be nearly impossible to make up for it later on in the course. Due to the easier style of targets, the scoreboard had a large concentration of very high scores in the high 90’s range and even a fair amount of 100 straights scattered throughout the weekend. When it was all said and done on Sunday afternoon, there was a three-way tie between Zachary Kienbaum, Griffin Howe, and Austin Kiemsteadt. The competitors were tied on an astounding sky high 197/200 with all competitors only missing three targets a piece over the two days. Both the younger competitors Howe and Kiemsteadt posting 100 straights on opposite courses, Howe on the Orange and Kiemsteadt on the Green. Following their shoot off, Griffin Howe came out victorious and was crowned the 2023 Western Regional Champion and is now the youngest competitor to ever win a regional championship at the age of only 16 years old. Austin Kiemsteadt was Runner Up in the Main Event and wrapped up an incredible performance all week long where he also won the FITASC Event with a 99/100 and tied for High Overall in the Prelim with another 99/100 having only missed a combined 8 targets out of 500 competition birds all week long in all events. Zachary Kienbaum ended up third place in the Main Event following the shoot off. Karen Miles won the Main Event in the ladies category with a 193/200, Gianna Santo was Runner Up with a 190/200 and Ashley Little was third. The 2024 Western Regional will be the first stop on the NSCA Championship Tour and will be hosted from March 6th - 10th at the Pinnacle at Ben Avery in Arizona. See you there!