COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (July 29, 2019)
A carol is particularly great around the holidays, but this Carroll has best been heard and seen this July. And so it has been for Ashley Carroll having earned the title of World Champion on July 3 and then defending that honor Monday by adding Pan American Games gold to this summer’s chart-topping performances.
Day three of the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, saw a 1-2 finish in Women’s Trap with Carroll being joined on the podium by Rachel Tozier. Earlier in the day, Nick Mowrer joined forces with Miglena Todorova to earn the silver medal in the Mixed Team Air Pistol event. After no medal on Day 1, USA Shooting Team athletes have now earned six medals in two days, including two gold.
The top Women’s Trap athlete in the world, Carroll (Solvang, California) shot 120/125 in Qualification followed closely by Tozier (Pattonsburg, Missouri) with a 118. There was an eight-target degree of separation between Tozier, a U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) soldier athlete, and the next nearest competitor, Ana Waleska Soto of Argentina. The Quota pressure was eliminated for these two athletes, given that the Quotas for this event had already been earned previously. Carroll earned one earlier this year at a World Cup stop, while Kayle Browning earned one at the 2018 Championship of the Americas. The two training partners set their sights on mining some medals.
After 25 targets, both Carroll and Tozier had missed four targets, while the other four finalists had eache missed at least nine targets. Carroll would open up a three-target advantage over her next 10 shots, missing just one compared to Tozier’s four misses. They’d each miss five targets each over their final
