For the first time in three years, Barrhead’s 526 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron (RCACS) failed to earn the opportunity to move on to the provincial championships.
On Feb. 25, five shooters travelled to Whitecourt to compete in the Stage II Marksmanship competition against teams from Edson, Mayerthorpe, Onoway and Whitecourt to see who would represent the Northwest Zone at the provincial championships in Wetaskawin in early April.
In order to move on to provincials, Barrhead shooters needed to win the competition.
Unfortunately, for the local cadets they finished in second place.
The Stage II Marksmanship competition is composed of two shooting disciplines — standing and prone. For the standing portion, cadets shoot at a small circular target located 10 metres away using the cadet standard issue Daisy 853 air rifle. In the second event, shooters are once again 10 metres away from the same small circular target, but this time are shooting from a prone position, laying on their stomach.
After the two events were completed, the scores from both events are combined and the team with the best overall combined score is named the winner.
Capt. Susan Peters, 526 RCACS commanding officer and coach said it wasn’t until recently that they began to have success at the zones.
“Unfortunately, I think we would have had a chance to finish in first, but one of our shooters, FCpl. Elizebeth Lystang, aggravated a wrist injury that she has been nursing for a while and it really impacted her and the team’s overall score,” she said.
Peters believes the pumping action in order to get the rifle ready to shoot caused Lystang’s wrist to deteriorate. “Which is too bad because under the rules I could have pumped it for her and perhaps it wouldn’t have bothered her as much.”
Even though the Barrhead cadets didn’t qualify a number of the team members had strong performances.
Sgt. Williams and FCpl. Damery finished as the top shooters in the competition. Lystang, although injured, was the third best shooter in the junior cadet (under 15 years old) category.
Peters noted Williams, who scored the best of any shooter in zone competitions, with 273 out of 300 possible points, will compete at provincials as a wildcard in a composite team.
“When you take all the scores from zones, our team placed seventh in the province, which, when you think of it is pretty good,” she said.
