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The Prescott High School trapshooting team defeated Baldwin- Woodville 111-42 in the Monday afternoon, April 11, meet at the Hudson Rod, Gun & Archery Club to improve to 1-1 overall for the season.

The Cardinals’ blowout victory against Baldwin-Woodville on Monday afternoon was a bounce-back performance after dropping the first meet of the season to the Hudson Raiders a week before 108-120.

Leading the charge for the Cardinals was senior Philip Seifert, who scored a perfect 25 in his competition round. Other scores include Hunter Lubich’s 22, Mason Lewis’ 22, and three shooters who posted a score of 21, including Liz Rohl, Eric Korfhage and Gavin Carey.

In the aforementioned loss to Hudson, Prescott’s scores included Seifert’s 23, Carey’s 22, and three posted scores of 21 for Rohl, Maya Pechacek and Lubich.

Like so many other teams in Pierce County, the Prescott trapshooting team has been negatively impacted by the weather, which has limited practice time and has stifled the early weeks of the Cardinals’ season. Head coach Chris Patraw spoke about how the first month of the season has been for his roster.

“It’s going pretty good, but it’s just been horrible weather,” Patraw said. “That has been the biggest thing (so far). The trap team has to shoot unless there is lightning – snow, rain, it doesn’t matter. We still have to shoot.”

Because of those rules and regulations, the trap team has endured some brutal weather both in terms of cold and rain. In addition to tough weather conditions, Prescott – by most standards – is a fairly small school because of the lack of different Divisions for trapshooting.

That means both River Falls and Hudson are in the morphed Middle Border Conference for trapshooting. It’s sans Ellsworth and Saint Croix Central and includes New Richmond, Hudson and RF. Those larger schools typically have 150 or more shooters, whereas Prescott has only a third of those numbers.

Despite those disadvantages, the Cardinals have consistently produced results at the state meet, which included a secondplace finish a couple of years ago and a top-10 finish last year. According to Patraw, the Cardinals have a goal this season of competing for and winning a state championship.

The trapshooting postseason is unlike any other. It isn’t traditionally structured like the basketball or football playoffs. The only meet of the year that truly matters, at least in the quest for a state title, is the state meet in the middle of May.

For the most part, conference standings and other regular season achievements don’t matter because every team qualifies for the state meet at the end of the year. According to Patraw, it only takes one lackluster day to lose a state title.

“If you have a bad day – no matter how good you are – if you have a bad day at state, you’re in trouble,” Patraw said. “State is four days and there are 120 schools. It’s one big Division.”

While Prescott has a focus on preparing for the state championship later this spring, the weeks of practice and the early meets against Hudson and Baldwin-Woodville serve as legitimate competition experiences that will prepare the Cardinals for the state meet.

The next meet on the schedule for Prescott is on Monday, April 25, against co-op New Richmond/Somerset. Prescott will begin shooting at the Hudson Rod, Gun & Archery Club on Monday at 4 p.m.

Gavin Carey of the Prescott trapshooting team competes in the competition round against Baldwin-Woodville on Monday afternoon. Carey’s score of 21 made him one of the top-five scorers at the meet for Prescott. _________________________