Emmaus High School’s Griffin Lake, a member of the rifle team at the school, recently acheived an incredible accomplishment at the World Competition held in Cairo, Egypt. The event was sponsored by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).
Lake, a senior, placed third in the world earning a bronze medal and first on the USA team in the Jr. Men’s 3-position event.
The 17-year-old said he tried to treat the experience just like any other match, while trying to keep his emotions in check.
“With shooting, we train to keep our mind clear so we can compete so I tried to think it was just another match to shoot,” admitted Lake. “With keeping that kind of mindset, it helps keep the pulse down and also helps keep the mind completely clear so that the shooter can completely focus on the shot because 1 millimeter can easily cost the match.”
“He added: “With saying all of that, I think everyone in my family was more excited and nervous than I was, but I was definitely a little excited for it.”
Lake competed in two events against the best in the world.
“The second event I shot in was the 3 Position Junior Men’s smallbore,” he said. “I placed second which put me into the finals (Top 8), where we start from 0 again and basically have a shoot off. I ended up placing third.”
“The first event, 50M Men’s Junior Prone, I finished 11th with a score of 611.7. Each shot is out of 10 points, with 60 shots taken. Because prone is so precise at this level, they take it a step farther and add decimals in there so that the best shot taken could be a 10.9. That is how the score is above 600 with only 60 shots.”
The son of William and Maureen Lake, Griffin represents Emmaus as the two-time individual PIAA State Rifle Champion in 2020-2021 and ’21-’22. He led his team to the state title a year ago.
Lake plans on continuing his academic and athletic career as he has verbally committed to West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV following high school.
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