Navy Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NJROTC) cadets from across the United States participated in the All-Service Air Rifle Championship in Anniston, March 17-19.

The annual three-day event hosted by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) brought 229 cadets who qualified from a field of 7,483 cadets, together in order to establish who has the right to be called national champions.

The event concluded with an awards ceremony and banquet to honor the competitors and present awards to the winners from each division.

"There is no event that we enjoy more than this event," said Cris Stone, vice chairman of Board of Directors for CMP and guest speaker at the ceremony. "Every one of you has excelled here. There are plenty of others that wanted to be here and shot well, but you are the ones that made it here and you are all winners."

The competition consisted of two days of firing by cadets, in which two divisions of competitors, Sporter and Precision, vied for gold, silver and bronze medals. Sporter-class air rifles are designed for junior competitors and are characterized by their light weight, low cost and outstanding accuracy for basic marksmanship training. Precision-class air rifles are higher in cost and require additional specialized clothing to be worn by the competitor.

Winning teams and competitors were determined based on their two-day aggregate scores.

In the Sporter division, the Navy made the podium with the overall individual champion in Cassandra Rodriguez, a senior from Parlier High School in Parlier, California and 3rd place finisher, Howard Norrish, a senior from Zion-Benton High School in Zion, Illinois.

"All the early mornings and late nights of practice paid off," said Rodriguez. "I feel very accomplished now and because it being my senior year, I definitely wanted to go out on top and leave a legacy."

Norrish was part of team at Zion-Benton that finished 5th overall in the team standings. His teammates included William Newman, Jaycie Hoenig and Hailey Smith. The team is coached by retired Navy Master Chief Dan Hackstein, naval science instructor at Zion-Benton High School.

"I'm so proud of the team and what they were able to accomplish this year," said Hackstein whose team has also won the Navy Nationals the past three years. "Winning Navy Nationals is hard and achieving it once is awesome, two in a row is unbelievable and the three-peat incredible. The dedication and commitment of the team is phenomenal and this year's senior class has been special and I'm really going to miss them."

In the Sporter division, the Navy also had another top-ten finisher in Matthew Pellegrino from Westview High School in San Diego, who finished 8th overall. Turlock High School from Turlock, California, and Freeport High School from Freeport, Illinois, finished 7th and 8th in the team competition respectively.

In the Precision division, Logan Hanscom, a senior from Howard Service High School in Anchorage, Alaska, finished 8th overall and broke the Navy National record for scoring in the kneeling position.

"It was a fun but stressful experience," said Hanscom. "I am going to miss all the travel and the chance to meet new people."

Los Alamos High School from Los Alamos, New Mexico, finished 8th place overall and was awarded top precision team at the Navy Nationals this year. That team had the top individual in Samantha Miller at the Navy Nationals. Los Alamos team members also included Joanna O'Neill, Stephanie Neilsen and Holly Hayes. The team is coached by retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Shumaker, senior naval science instructor at Los Alamos.

"We are all extremely proud of the marksmanship excellence demonstrated by our NJROTC cadets throughout this year's competitions," said Teresa Casey, program analyst with the operations department of Naval Service Training Command's citizenship development office in Pensacola, Florida. "The dedicated teamwork of the cadets, coaches, and school support, as well as individual accomplishments of thousands of competing cadets is proven again this year as scores climb higher than ever."

The top seven sporter teams, top eight sporter individuals, top five precision teams and top six precision individuals represented NJROTC in the All-Service JROTC Championship.

Other teams representing NJROTC in the Sporter division included: Westview High School, San Diego; Patuxent High School, Patuxent, Maryland; Volunteer High School, Church Hill, Tennessee; Midland Valley High School, Graniteville, South Carolina. Individual qualifiers in the Sporter division included: Luis Nevarez, East Aurora High School, Aurora, Illinois; Alexander Trevino, Lubbock High School, Lubbock, Texas; Allison Maxwell, Herndon High School, Herndon, Virginia; April Oatman, Westside High School, Augusta, Georgia; Alexis Hagood and Jesseca Montcrieff, Oviedo High School, Oviedo, Florida.

Other teams representing NJROTC in the Precision division included: Oviedo High School, Oviedo, Florida; Gainesville High School, Gainesville, Georgia; New Albany High School, New Albany, Indiana; Joshua High School, Joshua, Texas. Individual qualifiers in the Precision division included: Lilyanne Wade, Winter Park High School, Winter Park, Florida; David Tickle, Stockbridge High School, Stockbridge, Georgia; Stephanie Ledesma, West Mesa High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Heather Brown, Union Grove High School, McDonough, Georgia.

The CMP is a national organization dedicated to training and educating U.S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and airguns through gun safety training, marksmanship training and competitions. The CMP is a federally chartered 501(c)(3) corporation that places its highest priority on serving youth through gun safety and marksmanship activities that encourage personal growth and build life skills.

The NJROTC program is overseen by Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command at Naval Station Great Lakes.

NJROTC is a citizenship development program that instills in high school students, in U.S. secondary educational institutions, the value of citizenship and service to the United States.

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC includes Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp; NROTC at more than 160 colleges and universities across the country; Officer Training Command (OTC) in Newport, Rhode Island; NJROTC and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information on NJROTC visit: www.njrotc.navy.mil/

For more information about NSTC, visit: www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at www.facebook.com/navalservicetraining/.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.