Plum rifle team set to begin section competition

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, December 21, 2018 | 9:48 PM

The Plum rifle team won just two of 10 section matches last season and landed in fourth place.

But with a core group of seniors and several underclassmen making their mark, the Mustangs hope to turn around their fortunes and return to the WPIAL team championship shoot.

“Our numbers actually skyrocketed this year, so we have a lot more people than we’re used to,” said senior Hunter Linhart, one of two Plum returnees — senior Ashley Pattock is the other — who competed at the WPIAL individual championships last year.

“There are a lot of younger shooters on the team who are working hard and trying to get better. That’s exactly what we are looking for.”

Plum finished its nonsection matches 1-3 with its win coming last week in its season opener against West Greene.

“The improvement from last year to this year is really showing in our matches,” Linhart said. “I think it will work out for us over the rest of the season.”

The season resumes Jan. 3 with the start of section play at home against Indiana.

Plum returns to Section 3 with Indiana, as well as Butler, Hempfield and Penn-Trafford. Butler and Hempfield were section co-champions last year, and Hempfield went on to win the WPIAL team title, beating out runner-up Woodland Hills and third-place Butler, among others, for the crown.

Linhart and Pattock are among a group of eight seniors, including Casssidy Schrecengost, Matt Allman, Noah Csuy, Jonah Albert, Adam Garvin and Jarrett Bellotti, who help form the core of this year’s varsity starting lineup.

“We have two goals for the team, and that is to build for next year when we lose the large group of seniors and to also focus on winning for this year,” Plum coach Bob Davis said. “We’re developing a large crop of younger kids who hope to move into those spots next year.”

Junior Aidan Doyle also hopes to make an impact this year, along with sophomore Maddie Herrick and freshman Jason Rowe.

“Some of the younger shooters have experience and others are learning, but getting better each day,” said Pattock, who led Plum with a 34th-place finish at last year’s WPIAL individual championship meet.

“There’s been improvement from everyone. I didn’t have shooting experience before I joined rifle as a freshman. My siblings did it, so I thought I would give it a try. I am doing pretty good right now, so it’s cool to see others follow that same path.”

Both Pattock and Linhart hope to improve their WPIAL places from last year. Linhart placed 50th.

The individual championship will be Feb. 14, and each school which sponsors the sport as a team again will be permitted to enter five shooters.

“There is definitely some good competition to see who will make it to WPIALs,” Linhart said. “We have several on the team shooting pretty high and pretty consistent. The spots for WPIALs will be highly contested.”

The top two teams from each section will compete in the WPIAL team championship series set for Feb. 12.

If two or more teams are tied for second place, a tiebreaker format, which might include a playoff competition, will be used to determine which team enters championship play.

“I think with the experience we have, we can go places,” Allman said. “We have several on the team who are able to shoot 100 on a consistent basis. It’s just a matter to get everything to come together at the right time.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Plum