Colorado Mesa University becomes the third university in Colorado to add Shooting Sports
The Shooting team will increase the number of non-NCAA sanctioned sports at CMU to 22. The team will begin competing immediately with disciplines that involve American skeet, American trap, super sporting and sporting clays. The team is scheduled to compete in various collegiate tournaments prior to the Collegiate Clay Target Championships held March 19-26, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
Colorado Mesa expects an initial roster of eight to ten co-ed student-athletes with a goal of growing to 15 or more student-athletes in the future.
"As a progressive institution, we are always interested in providing students the ability to experience life-long healthy habits while working toward an academic degree," said Director of Club Sports Reese Kegans. "Due to our location and high demand of the sport, we felt it was the next best fit for programming in the club sport department at Colorado Mesa."
Colorado Mesa University Shooting Sports will compete in the ACUI Clay Targets conference and will train at Cameo Shooting and Education Complex and Grand Junction Trap Club in preparation towards the Collegiate Championships in March.
The ACUI (Association of College Unions International) Clay program was established in 1968 and is the oldest collegiate shotgun sports program.
Funding to assist in developing the new program was approved by CMU in addition to hiring a head coach. CMU alumna Ashley Teal will serve as the Shooting Sports head coach and brings immense knowledge to the team. She has an extensive shooting background with roots in the Grand Valley in the local 4H community and is the 2021 ATA (Amateur Trap Shooting) Colorado State Champion.
CMU's Shooting program will join 50 other universities from Texas, Kentucky, Clemson and Arizona in the ACUI Clay Targets Program.