TargetTalk

See the USA Shooting website at:
http://www.usashooting.org/7-events/njosc

Deadline to get packets back in is March 8th.
I'm hoping they have another round to fill any empty spaces.

Do you know how they arrived at the invites? I had a female IJ shoot a 374 and a Jr female shoot a 366 in air rifle and niether one is on the list. I would have thought that they would be invited before a 324 of any age bracket

It's strange that the 324s got invited... I'm a J2 and shot 372 and didn't get invited. I hope there's still a chance.

1st of all, the junior age groups you mentioned are NRA style age groups.

USA Shooting goes by year of birth and breaks it into J1, J2, J3.
Age groups for this year's JOs:
J1 Born in 93‐95
J2 Born in 96‐98
J3 Born in 99 or later

Invites were "goofy" this year.
ONLY Automatic qualifiers and State match gold medal winners (if they shot above the minimum) were invited in round 1 this year.
An example in the state medal winners, if a gal shot above a 300 in WAR that would have been above the minimum.
So that 324 score is most assuredly a State gold medal winner.

This past round 2 is essentially to fill out the remaining slots available on the range ... what would have been part of the old round 1.
I hope there will be another round to fill out any of this rounds declines, but that will be up to USAS.

My guess is that a Women J1 (oldest) would have required about a 382 this year and the next level, J2, would have required around a 376.

There has really been a loss of institutional knowledge over the last year or so in the Competitions dept at USA Shooting, and they are working hard at regaining that. One of the items "lost" was the procedure for doing the invites for the JOs. That's why it's a bit goofy this year.
I'm confident that those that should be there, will be there.

My Jr is a J1 and my IJ is a J2. The 324 should have been invited on round 1 if she was a state gold medalist. I also noticed that there are scores listed without any member number and some have a ? mark. I think that they are making this more complicated than it has to be. If they are going back to the way it was done several years ago with J3 and J2 given invites on round 2 ahead of J1, then they should not have lowered the state champion minimum scores so low with 500 for men and 300 for women in air rifle.
Just my 2 cents worth

Just a quick note, Tyler Anderson has been really good about responding to my emails and I would recommend anyone with questions email him directly. He was pretty patient while we went over the first cut considerations. I would have liked to seen names or age categories associated with the invites, the partial or no id numbers is cumbersome to sort through.

As a secondary thought, the 324 could have been a J3. I'm not sure how they prioritized it, but they may have done a certain percentage for each age category. Since they medal all three age groups they need at least 3 for the J3 and probably invited 5-10. There are some lower scores in all events (502 MAR, 510 Smallbore, etc) some of which I know are attributable to J3's. The rest is sheer speculation, which leads me back to my comments above.

Cut-off scores are now posted on the USAS website

As the Father of the 324 J3 Shooter

I am very glad they did it this way, it has motivated my Daughter to do much better and be more dedicated. I think inviting the state champions and a few J3s is good for the sport, and gives kids an opportunity that they might not ever have.

It also is giving her a chance to shoot with with older sister at the OTC for, what most likely will be the only time.

I understand the controversy, but I do see some logic in what they are doing.

From USA Shooting on how they did the 2nd round invitations:

"The second round invitation process was divided equally among the three different age groups (J1, J2, J3). The purpose of inviting different age groups is to continue the growth and development of the Junior Olympic Program."

ravensedge wrote:From USA Shooting on how they did the 2nd round invitations:

"The second round invitation process was divided equally among the three different age groups (J1, J2, J3). The purpose of inviting different age groups is to continue the growth and development of the Junior Olympic Program."

Thanks Ravensedge for the update.

I really don't have an issue with this, even though the J1 & J2 round 2 scores are higher than they have been in the past.
Here are the reasons I think so (and I'll admit that many do not agree with me here):

1) J1 - These are the sharks in the deep end of the pool. You are talking mostly JR&SR Highschoolers and FR&SO collegiates. These are the future or current national team members and those that want to swim in that end of the pool should be putting in lots of effort to be there.

2) J2 - Many of these shooters will and can swim in the deep end. These shooters should be achievement goal posts and motivation for this age group ... incentive to keep up, if you will. I personally think these scores were a touch high this year. But, if it evened out the J3's, then OK.

3) J3 - The future of the sport and I really don't have too much of an issue with lower qualification scores, if nothing else, to prove to these younger shooters that indeed that they can make it on the national stage. A trip or two to the JOs for this age group is highly motivational and this may be the event that "sets the hook" for these kids. There is hardly anything more fun than seeing this age group walk into the range, and be wowed by the shooters they are firing next to. And quite a few do VERY well.