The NRHEG clay target team looks to build on last year’s conference title, according to a press release.

The team will compete in Conference 4 of Class 4A after being in Conference 1 of Class 3A last season. Last season, NRHEG qualified for the Minnesota State High School League’s first sanctioned state tournament.

The team is picking up where it left off last year with a few exceptions. NRHEG lost one marksman to graduation and picked up a number of new athletes to put the roster at 54 shooters.

The team is comprised of students from NRHEG. Five are from Albert Lea, seven are from Waseca, one is from Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, one is attending St. Mary’s in Owatonna and one is home-schooled.

In the first week of competition, six of the NRHEG athletes occupied a top-10 average with 13 other students. This was the most of any school. However, in a sport with no bench players, the team needs 40 solid scores to be competitive. NRHEG started the season in fourth place.

Individually, Kyle Bartz of Waseca and Collin Christensen of NRHEG are back in form. Both shooters were in the top 100 in the state last year and qualified for the individual competition at the MSHSL state tournament. Both shooters are in the conference’s top 25. They are joined by Tyler Raimann of NRHEG, Frank Altrichter of NRHEG, Alex Romer of Albert Lea, and Carter Suchanek of NRHEG. Alex and Tyler were both credited with their first perfect 25 round last week.

The team shoots at the Owatonna Gun Club on Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Visitors are welcome.