The Jackson Prep Clay, Trap, and Skeet team finished their season on a strong note at the MSSP State Championship. The team first had to compete at Turcotte shooting range in Canton and then at the McIvor shooting range in Sardis to qualify for the state tournament. 

The first two tournaments had more than nine hundred shooters and around three hundred teams competing for fifty team slots in the state tournament. This made these shoots extremely competitive, meaning that a single clay could decide whether a team could qualify for state.

Both clay courses consisted of one hundred clay targets on a twelve-station course. The team had four teams competing, composed of twelve shooters. The course in Sardis was a relatively easy course in which the Prep team shot very well, with senior Shelby Brantley shooting the highest score for the high school at eighty-nine. Freshman Ethan Bush shot the top score with an eighty-six for the Junior High. 

However, the sporting clay course in Turcotte was a course that threw even the most experienced shooter for a loop. The course consisted of several difficult stations that were made even more challenging by the sun. Compared with the Sardis shoot, where the overall average was 66, the overall average at Turcotte was 53. Even with these difficulties, the Prep team still shot very well and managed to put two teams into the state shoot. Sophomore Jake Mathews shot the high score with an eighty-two.

The team consisting of Charles Stephenson, Shelby Brantley, and Aydan Kilpatrick were able to qualify along with the team of Ivy Vaugn, Ethan Hicks, and Jake Mathews. The State shoot consisted of fifty trap targets, fifty skeet targets, and one hundred sporting clay targets spread out over two days.

Trap and Skeet were shot on Friday, April 30th. The team shot skeet in the morning and trap in the afternoon. The conditions were not ideal, with light rain coming down almost the whole day. Despite this, Prep competed very well, with Jake Mathews shooting the team-high score on both trap and skeet with two forty-sixes.

The following day, the shooters arrived at 8:30 a.m. to shoot sporting clays at Turcotte. The course was somewhat tricky, but this did not stop the shooters from having five of their six scores at or above eighty. The course consisted of thirteen stations where the shooters shot either eight or six targets. Sophomore Jake Mathews was also able to shoot the highest on the team with a ninety, which gave him an eleventh place at the overall shoot.

This was the end of the shooting year since regionals were canceled due to COVID this year. Prep had four seniors shooting their last shoot, and all of the seniors were able to show their experience with superb scores. The team looks forward to next year with two returning state shooters.