Jun 4, 2016 3 min read

Haley Wilkerson has been shooting competitively for just the past four years or so, but the sport has become more than just a hobby for the McGuffey junior.

Last month, she and friend Cassidy Fairman, a senior at Indiana High School, traveled to Ontario, Canada, to take part in the Canadian Airgun Grand Prix, the largest international airgun competition in North America. The event drew competitors from seven countries.

Wilkerson, who began shooting at Frazier-Simplex Rifle Club in Wolfdale as part of the organization’s highly successful junior program, paired with Fairman to win first place in the team shooting competition – setting a match record – while Wilkerson also finished second in International Junior shooting and eighth overall, regardless of division.

Fairman finished third in the junior division.

“I didn’t think I would shoot as well as I did,” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson, who shoots twice weekly at Frazier and Sundays in Indiana for airgun, said she and Fairman began looking for a tournament in which to compete and were drawn by the idea of shooting in Canada.

“I’d always been interested in going to Canada, so we signed up for it and were accepted,” she said. “Going into a match that big was nerve-wracking. But we had high hopes.”

They more than fulfilled those. The duo’s team score of 1,589.9 set a tournament record and beat the second-place team by 25.

“It was a one-time event,” Wilkerson said. “We don’t advance from there to anything else. But we’ll probably go back again next year.”

In the meantime, there are other events on the schedule.

Wilkerson will be part of a Frazier-Simplex team that will compete in the Civilian Marksmanship Air Rifle 3-Position National Championships June 29 and 30 at Camp Perry, Ohio.

She’ll be joined by Rebecca Spencer, Wade Richards, Katie Frye and Hunter Moore.

The team qualifed for the match by shooting a postal match in January. They were then invited to the regional competition at Camp Perry in March, scoring high enough in that shoot to qualify for the national championship.

A Frazier-Simplex team won the national championship at the event in 2013.

And Wilkerson has big plans for the future, as well. She and Fairman are considering entering into a competition in London next year, and then college could be in the future.

“I went to a (shooting) camp at West Virginia,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of schools that have rifle teams, but they have one of the best and it was really nice down there. So that’s a possibility.”

• The first of two Fish for Free days was held May 29 in Pennsylvania. The second will be coming up in a month, July 4.

Anyone, resident or non-resident, can legally fish any waterway in the state without a license. This includes not needing a Trout/Salmon or Lake Erie permit.

All other fishing regulations still apply.

• Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Richard Joyce will address illegal dumping in rural Washington County at the June 9 meeting of the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Buffalo Township Municipal Building just off the Taylorstown exit of I-70.

The program should be of interest to hunters, rural property owners, township officials, environmentalist and those who enjoy hiking, biking or photography.

For more information about the free event, call 724-484-7537.

Outdoors Editor F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.