From sharpshooter to trap shooter: BP senior starts strong with trap shooting team
Published 7:17 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Blooming Prairie senior Carissa Easton has made the transition from track and field to trap shooting this Spring. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Blooming Prairie’s Carissa Easton is used to shooting buckets on the basketball court, but this Spring she’s taking on an entirely different kind of shooting.
Easton, a senior at BPHS, hadn’t touched a gun in quite some time and she had no experience trap shooting going into this Spring, but that has changed over the past few weeks and Easton has found out that she may be a lot better at trap shooting than she thought.
Easton has had training with guns, but she had never hunted or shot competitively before recently. Last spring she was on the BP track and field team, but her friend and basketball teammate Lauren Larkoski suggested that Easton try trap shooting and she gave it a shot — literally.
Blooming Prairie senior Carissa Easton joined the BP trap shooting team this year and she has found success. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
After three weeks, Easton is second in BP’s conference with an average of 16.33 behind only Beth Rockensock of Menahga, who carries a 17.83 average.
“It’s very fun. I didn’t think I would be able to hit anything [at first],” Easton said. “I hadn’t picked up a gun in a long time and I had to get back into how everything worked on it. I was really nervous [in the first meet].”
BP head trap shooting coach Kurt Foster said the team has 15 members this season and that’s right where they want it to be. He said that Easton took about a week to warm up, but she’s been stepping up her aim the past two weeks.
“She’s athletic and she’s got great hand eye coordination,” he said. “She put it to use right away and it’s really nice to see someone come in and do so well.”
Easton is now thinking about continuing trap shooting as a hobby after high school. She said being a shooter in basketball has carried over a little bit and the key to her success has been her mental approach.
“You’ve just got to focused and be patient,” Easton said. “When you see it, you hit it.”
Easton’s teammate Allison Pryor is currently fourth in the conference with an average of 15.33 and the Awesome Blossoms are leading the nine-team conference with a team score of 2,054. Litchfield is second with a score of 2,023.5.
Karson Vigeland, a BP seventh grader, is tied for first in boys shooters with an average of 21.67.