Rifle – Hornets repeat as NEPARL champions with win over Solehi; team now preps for upcoming state tournament

Photo: Emmaus Athletics

On the heels of capturing their second straight NEPARL regular-season championship, the Emmaus rifle team repeated as tournament champions with a 1054.9-1043.7 victory over Southern Lehigh on Tuesday at the Hornets home range at Unami.

“We won the tournament this year and last year and we won the regular season the last two seasons as well,” said head coach Michael Schuler. “I’m extremely proud of how well the team has been doing.”

Emmaus, which has lost only once this season, was led by sophomore Zachary Brenner who fired a score of 212.4. Teammates junior Sanaiya O’Neal (211.9) and senior Madison Carreiro (211.6) finished second and third overall, respectively.

“We had a rough loss to Freedom during a promising year that I hoped would end undefeated, but the kids have bounced back with four perfect 500s in a row and two great, incredible performances in the postseason tournament helping to clinch our sixth state tournament appearance in my six years coaching and second tournament championship,” said Schuler.

“We hope now to get our second state championship coming up in a few weeks.”

The state individual match will be held on February 13 at 1 p.m. with the state team match on February 15 also at 1 p.m. Both will be held at Southern Lehigh.

Emmaus last won states in back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022. A season ago, the Hornets finished third.

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Emmaus: 1054.9 – Zachary Brenner: 212.4, Sanaiya O’Neal: 211.9, Madison Carreiro: 211.6, Rowan Kratz: 209.8, Quinn Peck: 209.2
Southern Lehigh: 1043.7
– Kayla Trinkle: 211.5, Matthew deQuevedo: 208.9, Gavin Mahony: 208.4, Andrew Shirk: 207.6, Colton Kline: 207.3