Two rifle shooters from Eagle River High School ranked in the top ten at the fourth annual regional rifle championship held on Dec. 3 at West High School.

Daniel Foshee, a junior, took second place overall with a score of 287 and Haylee Nicholson, a senior, earned seventh place overall with a score of 285.

Seven high schools within the Anchorage School District – Bartlett, Chugiak, Dimond, ERHS, East, Service and West – sent 96 total shooters to the event.

Each school was allowed twelve competing student athletes and one alternate.

For Nicholson, the regional shoot was bittersweet.

“It’s sad to see my last high school rifle experience end but I’m super proud of my team this year,” Nicholson said. “It was a good end to the season and I can’t wait to see what they will do next year.”

At the end of the event, the seven high schools competing rank from first to seventh in this order: West, 3,365; Dimond, 3,321; Service, 3,276; Eagle River, 3,268; South, 3,261; Chugiak, 3,220; East, 3,033; and Bartlett, 2,953.

CJ Hall of CHS scored a perfect score of 100 in the prone position.

Team scores: The Eagle River A Team shooters were Ashtin Bennett with a 282, Maddie Bidinger with a 279, Daniel Foshee with a 287 and Haylee Nicholson with a 285.

The Eagle River B Team shooters were Haley McGrew with a 270, Grace Rochon with a 278, Ian Soellers with a 270 and Brandon Rose with a 269.

The Eagle River C Team Shooters were Colby Fletcher with a 265, Zackry Keith with a 256, Jacob Schwartz with a 259 and Spencer Singleton with a 268.

ERHS student shooters said they credit their coaches – Rashard Boston, Eric Taylor and Samantha Taylor – for this year’s successful season and the numerous accomplishments it included.

The team from CHS earned the coveted district academic award for being the team with highest overall grade point average. The CHS GPA was 3.689, according to Carrie Fleischhacker, CHS activities vice principal.

“Congratulations to the Chugiak High School Rifle team for their performance at the Region IV tournament. In addition to their solid performance as a team, and outstanding individual scores, our Mustangs brought home the high GPA award for the region,” Fleischhacker emailed to The ECHO News. “Nicely done.”

Editor’s Note: Haley McGrew is a student at Eagle River High School and a member of the rifle shooting team. She is an editorial intern for The ECHO News.