U. shooters place 4th at championships

Until two years ago, when Brad Collins thought of pistol shooting, it was a sport purely associated with recreation.

Collins started shooting at age 14 and his experience with firearms was mostly limited to targets in his backyard. Then his wife heard about a pistol shooting club team at the University of Utah. Collins' curiosity led him to contact the coach and join the team.

It opened his eyes to a whole new dimension of shooting.

"It's a completely different sport," Collins said. "Backyard shooting — you're throwing bullets down range just for fun and just to hear the gun go bang. But, in the competitive shooting world, it's all about discipline and mind control and learning about how to react under pressure."

It is a sport that Collins and his teammates have mastered quite well. The Utes made a big splash at the 2009 National Intercollegiate Pistol Championships held at Fort Benning, Ga., in mid-March.

The Nationals featured five events — open air, free, standard, women's air and women's sport. Each shooter went through a qualifying match where they shot 60 times and the top eight scorers moved onto a final round that featured 10 shots with each shot scored to a tenth of a point.

Lindsay Daniels, a senior, became just the second athlete in team history to claim an individual national championship when she finished first in women's air pistol. She also placed fourth overall in women's sport pistol and took third in the women's individual aggregate — which combined her score from all of the events.

"I don't think I really expected to win but I wanted to win," Daniels said. "I just wanted to do my best and it worked out for me."

Collins, a junior, won the qualifying match in open air pistol but dropped to a second place finish in the finals competition. Still, he brought home All-American honors in free, standard and air pistol and became only the second Ute athlete to earn such honors in that many events in one year

Utah's air pistol team finished second nationally — trailing winner and perennial powerhouse Ohio State by just six points in the final tallies. In all events combined, the Utes placed fourth overall.

Unlike many of the college teams they compete against, the Utes are a team with small numbers and limited resources. They also have fewer chances to compete against other college teams. The closest collegiate competitor for Utah is Texas A&M.