Photo and story
by Larry Sterett

The 102nd Grand American World Trapshooting Championships in Vandalia, OH, provided a few surprises this year. Overall attendance was up some 5% over the 101st, when 35,798 shooters participated.

This is really a slightly misleading figure, since most of the 37,641 registered shooters shot in more than one event. (The 100th Grand American was the real biggie, with 47,047 shooters participating.)

The final shooting event, the Grand American Handicap, was held on Saturday, Aug. 18, and the winner turned out to be a 17-year-old high school junior from Archer City, TX. Jarrett Delaney, shooting in his first Grand American, beat out the other 3,828 shooters to win the coveted title

Delaney, the present Texas state "singles champion," was one of five shooters to record 99s in the main event. After three shoot-offs, the 17-year-old emerged the champion, beating Billy Brinegar of Winchester, KY, by a single target.

"I really had poor scores all week," Delaney said. "I had low 90s and even an 84 in the preliminary handicap on Friday. To be honest, I just shot in this today to have some fun, then go back to Texas and get ready for school. I wasn't nervous at all in the shoot-off. I like to shoot fast. I always get on a fast-shooting squad."

Another of the shoot-off squad members was Earl Williamson, a 66-year-old retired GM worker from Xenia, OH. Williamson was in the Grand American Handicap shoot-offs in 1997, and finished third. This year he took the first shot of the main event from the first post on the first squad at 8:30 a.m. and finished fourth overall, eliminated in the first shoot-off round.

Other Events
The "10 Days in August" actually began on Thursday, Aug. 9 with Event 1, the David Berlet Singles, named after the 200 Clay Target Champion. The first four days, which include Events 1 through 10, plus some special events, are considered "preliminary days." The main events began on Monday, Aug.13, with the Singles Class Championship, and ended on the 18th with the Grand American Handicap. (Events 20 and 21 are based on events shot during these six days and do not require additional shooting.)

Shooting at the Grand seems to bring out the best in some competitors. Delaney broke 15 more targets on Saturday than he had on the previous day to win the GA Handicap. Cathy Wehinger from Monroe, WI, broke 200 targets on Monday in the Singles Class Championship, and again on Wednesday in the ATA Clay Target Championship. "Close, but no cigar," as the saying goes. Wehinger, now a 2001 All-American with seven 200s, was edged out in the shoot-offs by another 200 shooter, All-American Deborah Ann Ohye of New Brunswick, NJ.

Wehinger almost didn't make it on Thursday. After breaking the first 197 targets, she only knocked a chip off the next target. "I knew I hit it," she said, but the pressures are there and "It makes me nervous. I'm kind of wondering when I'm going to miss."

Nervous? Maybe a wee bit, but she had no trouble with targets 199 and 200. "Those were good hits. I just try hard every time I go out. If I end up hitting them all, that's a good thing." Good it was. Just not quite good enough.

Lady's Title
According to Deborah Ohye, who won the Lady's title in both events, "It's always a surprise. It's hard to do. A little bit of luck. . . . A lot of luck. Anytime you win here, it's always good." Ohye should know, she's a perennial winner.

While the first four days may be preliminary days, there's one special event-The Perazzi Classic-that many participants look forward to shooting. Shot on Sunday, Aug. 14, the Classic consists of 100 handicap targets, with the usual purses and trophies, but in addition, all competing individuals have an opportunity to win a new Perazzi shotgun, courtesy of Perazzi USA. This year William T. Blehar of Brandenburg, KY, won the main event in a shoot-off, beating Josef Ljutic of Yakima, WA, Lawrence Holowinski of Chicago, IL, and Wesley Begley of Powderly, KY, all 98 shooters.

The shoot-off for the Perazzi shotgun depends on the drawing of a number from zero to nine after the main event. This year the drawn number was six, and all shooters with scores ending in six were eligible for the shotgun shoot-off. While a score of 76 or 86 isn't much to brag about, it would have gotten a shooter into the running for a new Perazzi, along with those participants with 96s. So it was for Justin Liniger, a 16-year-old Xenia, OH, high school sub-junior All-American, competing as a junior this year. He shot an 86, his worst all week.

"But I was feeling a little better when they drew the number six," he stated later. Liniger was one of 252 eligible shooters in the evening shoot-offs for the new Perazzi. After two handicap rounds of 10 birds each, he was one of three still left. Another 10 birds reduced the field still further.

"I looked around and asked how many shooters were left, and they said, 'Just you two.' That was when I started to get nervous," said Liniger, who shoots handicaps at 25 yards. He apparently wasn't overly nervous, for when the fourth handicap round ended, Liniger was the only one to break all 40 targets. Asked what he would do with the new Perazzi, Liniger replied, "I'm going to shoot with it in practice for awhile, and try not to scratch it."

The Lady winner in the Perazzi Classic was Jean Greb of Baltimore, MD, with a score of 96 shooting from the 23°-yard line. Whether this was the reason providing the drive, her husband, Ray Greb, shot a 99 on Tuesday to win Event 13, the President Sol Holcomb Handicap. The 47-year-old Greb, who runs a heavy equipment repair and welding business in Baltimore, missed a target on his second trap, but ran the last 50 straight.

Greb, a 27-yard shooter, was the only competitor among the 2,595 entries to break 99 targets. There were no 100s in the Holcomb Handicap. Asked about his wife's win earlier, he replied, "I've been hearing about that."

The weather at the 102nd Grand American did its usual yo-yoing with its hot and humid, cool, and wet-or somewhere in-between act. By the time Monday ended, shooting had been delayed three times by thunderstorms, and some shoot-offs were held over until the following day, including those of the final event, the Grand American Handicap on Saturday.

Close Finishes
One dedicated shooter, 51-year-old Mike Mazzucchi, a contractor from Patterson, CA, has had a goal of winning one of the big events at the Grand. In the first year of the new millinimum he achieved it by winning Event 15, the ATA Doubles Championship on Aug. 16. With a perfect 100 in the main event, he had another perfect round in the shoot-off against Class AAA shooter Patrick Stacey of Federick, OK, Hall of Famer Robert Munson of Howard Lake, MN, and 13-year-old Sub-Junior Kasey Brewer of Remlap, AL, all of whom had 100s in the main event.

Brewer, a favorite of the spectators, has been shooting only four years. He might have been the Doubles Champ, but did take the Sub-Junior title.

A female shooter has yet to win the Grand American Handicap, but Deidre Pitsinger came close to winning the Preliminary Handicap on Aug 17. Pitsinger, a 52-year-old, 21-yard shooter, broke 99 targets in the regular event. She and Josef Ljutic were the only shooters out of the 3,690 entries in the event to do so. Although the Lady Champion title was hers if she wished, Pitsinger elected for the shoot-off. "I wanted the experience of being in a big shoot-off. It was just a thrill to be here and shoot off against Joe. Those little quarter left-angle targets are killing me. I guess I could use some practice," she said.

The targets she mentioned were two she missed in the shoot-off, along with a straightaway, after Ljutic had missed two early targets, giving her the lead. When she missed the second angled target it gave Ljutic, a 27-yard shooter, the title. Ljutic, the 48-year-old son of Al and Nadine Ljutic, both accomplished shooters in their own right and manufacturers of Ljutic shotguns, commented, "Shooting at night is a different ballgame. This is the only place I shoot at night, so you have to get used to it in a hurry. The targets look so big that you want to jump at them."

Winners of some of the other events of Grand Week not previously mentioned include: Louie Mogan of Loveland, OH, whose 200 earned the top spot in the Singles Class Championship; Leo Harrison III of New London, MO, whose 100 gave him the AAA championship in the Doubles Class event; Steven Keeley of Waterloo, WI, whose 200 got him the ATA Clay Target Championship; Jacqueline Snellenberger of Coldwater, MI, who took the Vandalia Handicap with a 98, and Drew Waller of Sagamore Jills, OH, who took Champion of Champions.

High Over-All was Harrison with an aggregate of 983, while Harlan Campbell Jr. (no hometown listed) was High All Around with 395 for the requisite events.

The big "discussion" along the line in 2001 seemed to be where the Grand American would be held in 2004. Vandalia has been the home grounds for the Grand American and the Amateur Trapshooting Association since 1924. However, the Dayton International Airport wants the land for extending two runways and some possible road realignment. The ATA wants to own the land on which its facilities are built and several possible locations have been inspected and discussed. The high cost of the land, proximity of neighbors and other considerations have prompted some sites to lose favor, so it appeared the field had narrowed to three possible sites by Thursday, Aug. 16th.

By Friday, the Sparta, IL, site appeared to be the leader.

The Illinois package costs $2.3 million, with 50% of the cost being paid by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and the other 50% covered by Illinois First, a government grant program.