Lone shooter PT’s Keane a WPIAL placewinner
CANONSBURG – For the majority of the competitors in the WPIAL Individual Rifle Championships at the Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club, Thursday’s shoot was their final competition of the year.
But for Peters Township senior Tyler Keane, it marked the first – and perhaps only – time that he would get an opportunity to compete against other WPIAL shooters.
The Indians don’t field a rifle team, so Keane shoots on his own at the Frazier-Simplex Rifle Club, travelling to Washington at least once a week for a three-hour session.
“I just shoot. I shoot prone, standing, kneeling. It’s fun,” said Keane. “I always just try to beat my personal (mark). I always try to get one more X, one more center shot and beat myself, I guess. It’s all I can do. There’s no one to put myself against.”
That had been the case, at least, until Thursday, when Keane finally got the chance to measure himself against the WPIAL’s best.
Keane fired a 200-17X with two center (perfect) shots to finish a surprising seventh in this year’s championship, which was won by Mike Krivi of Woodland Hills with a 200-19X and five center shots.
“I knew I was shooting well,” said Keane, who finished in 53rd place a year ago. “I didn’t know I was shooting this well.”
Keane’s score was the best of any area shooter, edging the McGuffey duo of Madison Ryburn and Alex Klages, who finished eighth and ninth, respectively. Ryburn shot a 200-16X with six center shots, while Klages finished with a 200-16X and five center shots.
Trinity’s Chris Lemons was 13th with a 200-15X and five center shots, and teammate Chris Staley fired a 200-14X with two center shots to tie Washington’s Jordan King for 17th.
It also earned him another opportunity to compete next week, when the State Rifle Tournament takes place.
Keane has shot with many of the local competitors before as a member of the Frazier-Simplex junior program. But while most of the other junior members at Frazier-Simplex get the opportunity to shoot in WPIAL matches against other teams, he’s forced to continue to practice on his own.
“We’ve asked to start a team,” Keane said. “My family and I have pushed for it at school board meetings. It just hasn’t caught on. They weren’t interested in it. I’m not sure why.”
Keane, who is considering attending Penn State University and shooting on the club team there, said he first got into the sport a few years ago when a friend took up shooting at Frazier-Simplex and asked him to go along.
Though it wasn’t a sport offered at his high school, he fell in love with it and decided to dedicate himself.
“I asked myself, ‘Should I do this?'” said Keane, noting that his friend gave up the sport. “I thought, ‘Why not?’ It didn’t hurt me at all. It took. I loved it.”
It’s something he can take pride in now.
“All my friends support me. They think it’s really cool, what I do,” Keane said. “But no one else at Peters shoots. I went to the athletic director three years ago and he said, ‘Sure, you can shoot.’ Here I am now. They’ll be taken aback when they see I got seventh place; that’s for sure.”
Quick shots
The top 18 individual finishers and top three placewinners from Tuesday’s team championships – Woodland Hills, Trinity and McGuffey – will compete in the State Shoot next week. The local teams will shoot at Frazier-Simplex. … Keane had the only 200-19X, while five competitors fired 200-18Xs. … Thirty of Thursday’s WPIAL-record 80 competitors fired 200s. … Reagan Rush had the high score for Waynesburg with a 200-13X, Lexi Keller a 200-11X for West Greene and Jocelyn Cunningham a 199-13X for Avella.