Sunday afternoon, the annual league banquet was held at Wild Marsh Sporting Clays with a number of special prizes awarded as the club celebrated its 35th anniversary.

Manager Debbie Mortensen served as emcee for the program, which recognized the top teams and individuals.  A total of 540 league participants tried their aim this season, including a number of first year shooters and several who have been pulling the trigger since year number one.

Ten individuals were honored for scoring a perfect 50-for-50 during one of their 10 league rounds and were awarded with either a t-shirt or a patch.

In addition to a hog roast dinner, the banquet also included a chance to try up to four shooting games.  

The “In Between” challenge consisted of four rounds of two orange and one black target.  Participants had to hit the orange targets only, with a broken black pigeon counting as a negative score except on the final round, when all three targets needed to be hit with just two shells.

In the “Shotty Potty” event, seated partners would take turns firing at long range targets and once the first person spent two shells, his or her partner could shoot “back up” to try and break any remaining targets.

Station three was labeled the “Honker Flurry” and included two rounds of five orange and one black target.  Again, the black target needed to be avoided by the shooters who had two rounds of two shots, separated by just four seconds to re-load their guns.

The final challenge was the Quail Walk and included 10 targets, from rabbit simulators to crossing shots.

Winners from each of the challenges were recognized at the beginning of the awards banquet.

Next, the league awards were presented and in the “big team” category, Slingin’ Lead placed first in the 1AA division, while Ziegler Custom Homes was the A division winner.

The B division was won by Rapid Plating, while Everest Steel took first in the C division.  Haus Construction was the D level winner, while The Getaway took first in the E division.

In the “buddy team” category, Trump Train was the Division 1 winner, while Fowl Boys, Bull Shooter and TAZ took first in divisions two through four, respectively.

Individual awards went to the season champ Hunter Hedtke, who averaged 49-for-50 during his rounds to claim the title, as well as his dad, Dale, who had a 48.5 average.  Glenn Psyck placed third with a 46.8 average, while Jesse Whiteside and Jim Klein rounded out the top five.

Mike Ziegler (Legacy Award), Thomas Olson (Super Senior Vet Award), and Sam Motzko (rookie of the year) also earned honors at the banquet.

While the league season is over, the club is still open to the public and will be hosting several fundraiser shoots in the coming weeks.