BRAINARD, NEB — In what was billed as one of the biggest tournaments the program will compete in this year, the Statesmen shotgun sports team was near the top of the standings at the Concordia Invitational Saturday and Sunday.

WPU placed second out of 11 teams with a score of 1,401-for-1,500.  All shooting was done in the Sporting Clays discipline with 200 targets in Sporting Clays and 100 targets in Super Sporting Clays.

The navy and gold were just 21 shots out of first as NCAA Division II Fort Hays State (Colo.) won the crown at 1,422-for-1,500.  William Penn finished ahead of third-place Midland (Neb.) by 44 targets.

Colten Uitermarkt (Grad., Otley, Iowa, Master’s of Organizational Leadership) guided the Statesmen with a total score of 286-for-300.

The trio Mathew Brindley (So., Earlham, Iowa, Industrial Technology), Russell Malterud (Grad., North Branch, Minn., Master’s of Organizational Leadership), and Dominick Ver Meer (Jr., Pella, Iowa) were next as each shot 279-for-300.

Noah Seelye (So., Pella, Iowa, Mechanical Engineering) concluded William Penn’s team scoring at 278-for-300.

Uitermarkt finished third in the overall Male standings, while KayLynn Sieber (So., Marshall, Minn., Biology) also claimed bronze, doing so in the Female Super Sporting standings at 91-for-100.

“Coming into this weekend and knowing the level of competition we were going to face, I was hoping to see some progress from our team and hopefully have a top-five finish,” Head Coach Steve Heaton said.  “As usual, this team went above and beyond, took everything from practices, and implemented that to be successful for a great outcome.  This was a great milestone for this team to build off of.”

Next Up: William Penn travels to Grand Island, Neb. Saturday and Sunday to compete in the Hastings Invitational.