Purdue News
Purdue NewsAugust 30, 1996
On Aug. 12, the Purdue Trap Team won its 12th consecutive national championship at the 1996 Grand American World Trapshooting Tournament at Vandalia, Ohio. Collegiate team competition was initiated in 1979 at the Grand American, and Purdue now has won 12 of the 18 national championships.
Purdue's five-member championship squad broke 962 targets out of a possible 1,000. Eric Poloncak, a member of the 1994 National Rifle Association's Collegiate All-American Shotgun Team, was high individual on the squad with a score of 197 out of 200. He is a senior in industrial management from Hebron .
The second-highest score, 195, was shot by Dave Huffman, a sophomore in forestry from Columbus . Huffman attends the Indiana University-Purdue University campus at Columbus.
Junior All-American T.J. Arvas Jr. from Albuquerque, N.M., broke 193 of his 200 targets.
The fourth-highest score, 189, was shot by Matt McGraw, a junior in agriculture from Connersville . McGraw won the 1995 black powder trap national championship, and in doing so, tied the national record of 98 broken targets out of 100, a record held by his father, Gary, a member of the Purdue class of 1969.
The fifth member of the championship squad was Bryan Nemec with a score of 188 out of 200. Nemec is a junior in industrial technology from Naperville, Ill.
The annual 10-day tournament is sponsored by the Amateur Trapshooting Association, attended by nearly 100,000 trapshooters and spectators from around the world.
In another competition, Purdue freshman Danny Ficocello, from Batavia, Ill., won three world championships at the 1996 Junior World Skeet Championships in Prior Lake, Minn., from Aug. 1 to 4. Ficocello was world champion with a perfect score in the "Champ of Champs" event. This event involves shooting 25 targets in each of four gauges: 12, 20, 28 and 410 bore. Ficocello broke all 100 targets.
Ficocello was also world champion in 410 bore, breaking 99 of 100 targets. He was high overall world champion in the four gauges, with a score of 395 out of 400 targets. Ficocello is majoring in computer science.
The Purdue Trap and Skeet Club is one of 24 club sports available to Purdue students. The club, chartered in 1977, became the No. 1 collegiate trap and skeet team in the United States in April by winning the 1996 ACU-I (Association of College Unions-International) Clay Target Championships.
The ACU-I championships are composed of four events: Olympic trap and Olympic skeet and American trap and American skeet. Purdue was national champion in both Olympic events and runner-up champion in both American events. It also was high overall team champion in the four events.
The ACU-I sanctions championships in sports that are not sanctioned by the NCAA. The shooting competition had been dominated by varsity and military teams for several decades.
Charles L. Rhykerd, professor emeritus of agronomy, continues to serve as faculty adviser and coach of the trap and skeet club, a volunteer position he has held since 1977. Rhykerd was named coach of the year in 1991 by the National Rifle Association. The Purdue Trap and Skeet Team now has won 41 national and world championships.
CONTACT: Rhykerd, (317) 494-8459; home, (317) 463-6486; e-mail, clr@admin.agad.purdue.edu
fjk/rhykerd/9608f39
