The Blue Dragon Junior Rifle Team Tastes Success at National

[Blue Dragon News]

Knoxville’s Blue Dragon Rifle Team has just returned from Fort Benning, Georgia and a successful Gary Anderson Invitational Rifle Match. The match, named in honor of Gary Anderson, a two-time Olympic Gold Medal rifle winner, is held annually to showcase the talents of high school and collegiate air rifle and smallbore shooters from across the country.

Each of the eight Blue Dragon shooters who attended this match came home with their own story of success. A few of these successes included Benjamin Ryerkerk, son of Cheryl and Doug Ryerkerk, a 7th grader at Powell Middle school, who came home the most improved Blue Dragon. His overall score improved 139 points over his score last year.

Kaitlynn Lee, Daughter of Bill and Wendy Lee shot an outstanding score of 373 out of 400 in standing air with a high target of 96 out of a possible 100. Kaitlynn is a sophomore at Loudon County High School.

Carly DeRisi, daughter of Dave and Kathy DeRisi and freshman at Central High School, was all smiles when her score of 384 out of a possible 400 earned her a silver medal in the standing air competition. Two of her four target being 97 out of 100. DeRisi didn’t stop her success story there. In the finals portion of the match, each shooter fires an additional ten shots, one at a time, on command. Each shot is scored by the 10th of a point, the highest possible score on a single shot a 10.9, All eyes, including those of Olympic winner Gary Anderson were on DeRisi as she prepared for her 10th and final shot. All of DeRisi’s previous shots had been a 10.1 or higher. She was going for her first perfect target. With the pressure at a new height for DeRisi she raised her rifle, took aim and scored a nearly perfect 10.8 shot finishing the finals with a score of 103.9 ‘What a truly fantastic weekend”, states head coach Mary Furr, “ in all the years I have been coaching I have never come home from a match where each and every shooter had such a successful experience.”

The Blue Dragons head for Tennessee Tech in Cookville, TN on the 8th of January where they will be competing for a chance to represent Tennessee in the Junior Olympics. The Junior Olympic are held in March at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.