Trap Shooters Compete In Town

Three student shooters have earned invitations to represent Connecticut at this summer’s National Junior Olympics in Colorado. The state qualifying competition for international trap shooting was held recently at the Fairfield County Fish & Game Club in Newtown for the fourth straight year.

For the second consecutive year, CJ Ehrentraut, a 14-year-old from Beacon Falls, took home the Connecticut title and a gold medal. He did not miss any of his last 50 targets to beat out 2007 gold medalist, Mat Apgar, a 19 year old from Bridgeport. Their scores, out of 125 targets, were 116 and 112, respectively.

Third place bronze was taken, for the second year in a row, by 15-year old Nicholas Fatse of Sandy Hook. Fatse broke 108 clay pigeons.

 Leslie Barnard, 17, of Armonk, NY, won the girls’ gold with a 111 and also earned an invitation to the Nationals which will be held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs July 18 and 19.

Rounding out the Newtown-based competitors were 15-year-old Stephen Michael Apgar of Middlebury, 17-year-old Chris Buffone of Greenwich, 14-year-old Jeffrey Holinko from Trumbull, and 12-year-old Alexander Buffone of Greenwich. All shooters are members of USA Shooting — the governing body of shooting sports for the United States Olympic Committee.

The youth clay target program has been made possible by the support of the home club, Fairfield County Fish & Game Protective Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the National Rifle Association, and generous donations from individual sportsmen.