Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) cadets from Turlock (California) High School won the sporter division of the JROTC All-Service Air Rifle Championship in Anniston, Alabama March 23-25.

The annual three-day event hosted by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) brought together 220 cadets, who qualified from a field of 7,286 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.

"I'm so proud of all the cadets that participated in this championship," said Dr. J. D. Smith, NJROTC program director. "The competition was great and stresses the discipline and control the cadets need to be successful in this sport. To keep calm under all the pressure was amazing."

The competition consisted of two days of shooting, 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, cadets Nicolas McKeon, Dorian Macintosh, Adriana Valencia and Ramandeep Singh, led the winning Turlock team which was coached by retired Marine Maj. Kelly Cross, senior naval science instructor of the Turlock unit.

"We were the underdogs," said McKeon, a senior who finished 4th individually. "We had a bad first day and had a team meeting to discuss that tomorrow would be a new day. You don't give up in this event after the first day and we came out on top."

The Navy also finished 2nd overall with Freeport (Illinois) High School cadets Emma Thompson, Lindsay Strohacker, Makiah Stacy and Linsey Kleckner. The team is coached by retired Marine Sgt. Maj. Michael Dechy, naval science instructor at Freeport High School.

"We performed well as a team and had a great second day," said Thompson, a junior who finished 2nd individually. "We are very grateful for this finish as it is the highest we have ever finished at this competition."

Zion-Benton (Illinois) High School rounded out the top five with a fifth-place team finish and cadets Jaycie Hoenig and Hailey Smith finishing 3rd and 6th individually.

In the precision division, John Marshall High School in San Antonio, Texas finished 2nd overall in the precision division and also broke the Navy record for team score. Their team was led by cadets Elijah Garza, Colin Clark, Destiny Silva and Ingrid Gulmar. Coaching the team was retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer, Edward Smith, naval science instructor of the John Marshall NJROTC unit.

"We honestly were not expecting any of this," said Garza, a senior who also finished 10th overall individually. "We are just a small ordinary school and I'm very happy how we did considering the disadvantage we have over some of the bigger schools. We thank the Master Chief for all he has done for us."

The Navy also had a 7th place finisher in Elena Flake from Oak Harbor (Washington) High School and 8th place finisher in Shannon Tyssen from Upson Lee High School in Thomaston, Georgia. Both competed in the precision division.

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 schools representing NJROTC in the sporter division included: Volunteer High School of Church Hill, Tennessee; Ramona (California) High School; Oviedo (Florida) High School; Santa Fe (New Mexico) High School; Aiken (South Caroline) High School; Lemoore (California ) High School; Cross Creek High School, Augusta, Georgia; and Joshua (Texas) High School.

Other schools representing NJROTC in the precision division included: Stockbridge (Georgia) High School; Stockbridge (Georgia) Union Grove High School; McDonough (Georgia) High School; North Cobb High School, Kennesaw, Georgia; Oviedo (Florida) High School and Los Alamos (New Mexico) High School.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program is a national organization dedicated to training and educating American citizens in responsible use of firearms and airguns through gun safety training, marksmanship training and competitions.

It 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 (NSTC) and his staff at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.

NJROTC is a citizenship development program that instills in high school students and 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; Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (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 information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

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