Feb 11, 2016 4 min read

EIGHTY FOUR – As Trinity High School junior Jessica Baker continued to punch holes in the targets down range at the Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club Thursday, the excitement began to build.

So did the pressure.

Baker knew she was working on a perfect score at the WPIAL Individual Rifle Championships and the happy-go-lucky attitude with which she began shooting was being replaced.

Only Baker wouldn’t let it overwhelm her.

“My heart kept racing and I told myself to stop and calm down,” said Baker. “I talked myself out of that.”

Good thing.

Baker settled in nicely and completed her two targets, scoring a perfect 200-20X with three center shots to win the 2016 WPIAL title.

It wasn’t necessarily an expected finish for Baker, who became the Hillers’ eighth individual champion since the WPIAL began awarding them in 1998 and first since Kayla Huffman in 2014.

“Would I say she’s the best shooter on our team? Probably not,” said Trinity head coach John Husk. “But today she was. She shot really good all year. She didn’t have a perfect season, but as the year went on, she got better and better.”

Thursday, she was easily better than anyone else.

Baker shot the match’s lone perfect score, though 34 other competitors fired 200s, making this year’s tournament one of the more hotly contested in its history.

“I knew I could do it, I just had to have the confidence in myself to do it, and I did,” said Baker, who has been shooting since her freshman year. “I didn’t put any pressure on myself. I tend to do that sometimes.”

Husk said he knew she could do it as well, even if he wasn’t necessarily counting on it.

But once he saw how relaxed she stayed, he knew he might be witnessing something special.

“She had the most 100-10Xs of anybody on our team,” Husk said. “All the guys just as easily could have shot 200. She’s had a lot of 10Xs late in the year. A lot of times it is like that. If you expect yourself to do really good, you put a lot of pressure on yourself and you don’t perform as well.

“I could tell once she started shooting that she was going to get 10Xs all the way around. Once she started, she was going to shoot Xs all the way around. She was on a roll.”

Baker was one of four local shooters who finished in the top 15 in the event and advance to the state championships.

Waynesburg senior Emily Ozohonish fired a 200-16X with seven center shots to finish 10th, while teammate Emilee Tuttle, a sophomore, was 13th with a 200-16X with two center shots.

West Greene junior Lexi Keller narrowly edged McGuffey’s Anja Eshbaugh for 15th place among the 81 shooters, firing a 200-15X with eight center shots compared to a 200-15X with seven center shots for the Highlanders junior.

Brendan LeFevre of Butler was the silver medalist, while WPIAL team champion Woodland Hills’ Sarah Rodacker was third.

Becca Spencer had Avella’s high score with a 200-13X with one center shot to finish 30th, while Washington’s Maria Sova was 31st wit ha 200-12X-1.

But the day belonged to Baker and the Hillers, who had the individual champion despite not qualifying for Tuesday’s team championships.

Husk will take the individual title.

“We didn’t make it to the championships this year but we had a really good group of kids. We just lost at the wrong time and didn’t make the championships,” Husk said. “It’s getting rougher and rougher every year. We’re pretty much shooting the same scores we’ve been shooting the past 10 years, but the other teams have gotten better and better. We’re going to have to try to step up and do more to try to get a little edge back.”

It might help to have the returning WPIAL champion next season, not that Baker will feel any pressure to repeat.

“I know I can do it,” Baker said.