Manti High’s trap shooting team and local members of law enforcement competed in a friendly team shoot at the Trigger Therapy Range on Saturday, Aug. 21.
EPHRAIM—The Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office answered the call on Saturday, Aug. 21.
They accepted the challenge from the Manti High School’s trap shooting team to a skeet/trap shooting competition at the Trigger Therapy Shooting Range in Ephraim.
“The law enforcement officers were all great sports to answer a challenge from the youth shooting team who are among the top shooters in Utah,” said Richard Nielson, coach of Manti’s shooting team.
Four of the team’s members took top honors in the state meet this past year.
The competition consisted of great entertainment watching hits, misses and a few “hurrahs.” A great camaraderie developed between the youth and great law enforcement who serve Sanpete County.
Nielson said that undoubtedly the best part of the whole day was seeing a friendship develop between the youth and adults as they worked together in the partner shoot.
When the smoke cleared, Brayden Thomas, Tyler Johnson, Kyler Barton, Keith Jensen, Gage Thomas and Sheriff Buchanan ended up as the highest shooters.
Other individual event winners included Gage Thomas overall winner, Jaxon Anderson in the trap event and Kyler Barton for the sporting clays event.
Trooper Richard Nielson of the Utah Highway Patrol won the Annie Oakley Event with Kyle Olson, Trayton Cox and Jace Nielson hanging in until the end.
This event was held to show support for the local law enforcement by the youth shooting team. They found that getting together for a fun event, mingling and working together proved to be a great way to become better acquainted.
Derick Taysom of the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office said that they were grateful for the invitation to shoot with the Manti High School Club and for the Nielson family for hosting it.
“We had a blast and I think we even hit more skeet than we missed to boot,” said Taysom. “It was a great opportunity to get to know the team and appreciate their shooting skills. It’s great to see programs like this in our county.”
The shooting team is a high school club sport and is part of Utah Youth Education in Shooting Sports (UTYESS). It is sponsored by Nielson Trigger Therapy of Ephraim.
