TUCSON, Arizona (July 18, 2018)
The USA Shooting Team opened the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Tucson, Arizona the same way it closed it today in the Trap Mixed Team event – with two World Cup medals.
Winning gold today in the newly-minted Olympic event was two-time Olympic bronze medalist Corey Cogdell-Unrein (Eagle River, Alaska) and Jake Wallace (Castaic, California). Winning the bronze was the Kayle Browning (Wooster, Arkansas) and Will Hinton (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Dacula, Georgia).
“We battled all day long,” Cogdell-Unrein said. “The scores were all over the place and we had to focus to battle throughout the day. This is a difficult range, so it was good to shoot in the individual match, which gave me the opportunity to find my hold points, figure out how I wanted to attack this team event and make a game plan.”
The team of Cogdell-Unrein/Wallace was near the front of the 24-team pack most of the day, opening the first round of three with 46/50 hits. They finished Qualification in second place overall with 132/150 hits. Once in the Final, Cogdell-Unrein/Wallace once again floated around the top of the pack throughout the first half, only dropping a combined three targets in the first 25. Even though the French team of Melanie Couzy/Sebastien Guerrero and Browning/Hinton were closing in on the final series of five, on Wallace’s final shot of the match, he pumped his fist as he walked to his last station, knowing he had put the gold medal out of reach of the other teams.
“Finishing one target out of the Men’s Trap Final was kind of a letdown, but it drove me to shoot hard today and keep in it the entire time”
