While Morgan Craft had incredible success as part of the 2014 Lindenwood ACUI Clay Target Championships team, she had struggled at the USA Shooting National Championships the past year, until now.  The returning senior from Muncy Valley, Pa., overcame five-time Olympic medalist Kim Rhode, and fellow Pennsylvanian Haley Dunn, along with an afternoon thunderstorm, to capture the USA Shooting Women's Skeet National Championship, concluded August 10 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Craft hit an impressive 244 out of 250 targets to post the top qualifying score in the event, then outlasted the other two competitors in two rounds of shoot-offs to take the title.

Meanwhile, Lindenwood was also well represented in the USA Shooting International Trap competition.  Former Lion Jake Wallace won the title, while returning junior Trey Hill from Murfeesboro, Tenn., earned the Junior National crown.  Wallace, a 2012 graduate, hit 50 out of 50 targets over two qualifying rounds, then went 15 out of 15 in the semifinals, before hitting 13 targets in the gold medal match the final day to best Matt Gossett and Alex Rennert by just one point for the overall championship.

Over four days of shooting, Hill edged 2014 Junior World Team member Ryne Barfield by just four points to win gold. 

Both Craft and Hill will be back on campus soon as the 2014-15 shotgun sports season kicks off with the Newbie 300, a competition specifically for new incoming shooters to the Lindenwood program, August 23-24 at the Gateway Gun Club in Bridgeton, Mo.