2008 Seminole Cup
Article by Mike Hafley
As the temperature in the Northern states starts to drop closer to the zero mark, the idea of heading south starts to creep into the thoughts of most of the shooters I know. Driving or flying south and watching the mercury start to climb is starting to become a regular pilgrimage for a crowd that is growing in size every year. This was the fourth year that the Seminole Cup has been held at Quail Creek in Southern Florida. It was previously held at TM Ranch in Orlando. Those events are still held in the highest regard by all of the shooters that were able to attend one or more at that venue. Due to TM Ranch being closed for good, the shoot had to find a new location. Quail Creek near Okeechobee was chosen to host the event and the rest, as they say, is history. For those of you that have been there, you know what a first class establishment it is. If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting this South Florida club, there are but a few that I can think of offhand that are nicer and more accommodating. This year’s event played host to somewhere around 500 shooters from locations both near and far. Of all of the events that we attend, this one seems to draw the largest group of international shooters other than the NSCA Nationals.
Starting on Wednesday and running until Sunday, there are plenty of events to participate in. Wednesday was added to allow shooters to take advantage of shooting the entire FITASC program in one day. Wendell Cherry was one of the shooters that used this opportunity to take an early lead in the FITASC. His 93 posted on Wednesday would be the one to beat. Sitting on top of the leader board and knowing that some of the better FITASC shooters are still out has to be a little hard on the nerves. Gebben Miles would be the closest to him a full three targets back. They would have the only two scores in the 90’s on what seemed to be four pretty straight-forward layouts. Most of the targets were standard fare, except for two traps off of a man-lift that threw one target to Parcour 2 and one to Parcour 1. The target being thrown to Parcour 2, in my opinion, was the highlight of this event. It was a chandelle that was quartering away a bit from peg 1 but was a crosser from peg 2. I am not sure of the exact height, but it proved to be an intimidating target for most of the shooters I talked to. The second was a midi that was thrown to Parcour 1 and curled into the center of the Parcour after what seemed an eternity in the air. As I watched several shooters attempt to break this target, the break point varied from just off of the trap to just off of the ground. When I asked, most shooters thought that every Parcour was evenly laid out. Across the board, the scores seemed to say the same thing.
It would take a shoot off between Curtis Mauldin and Patrick Lieske to determine the winner of the Thursday Preliminary. Each shooter was thrown three report pair of the same set of targets. The targets were somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 yards. Pat led off by breaking three out of the six targets he was thrown. Now with a number in mind, it would be Mauldin’s turn to attempt the pairs. After attempting the first pair, Curtis found himself in the hole by not drawing a chip off of either target. Mauldin reloaded his 34 inch Perazzi knowing he needed all four targets that were left for the win. This time the results would be different. Mauldin would break the four remaining targets to win the shoot off by one. The crowd was treated to a peek at what has become one of the better shooters in the game. Curtis has continued to climb the ladder and is earning a solid shooting reputation as he goes. The ladies concurrent would be won by Deborah Fleming followed by Kristin Canale and Dee Orr respectively. Veterans would be won by Gary Greenway with Floyd Hartlage winning Super-Veteran and Ed Stroik winning the new concurrent of Senior Super-Veteran.
It also took a shoot off to decide the winner of the Phil Hughes 100. Gary Greenway and Todd Simmons posted a top score of 94. After the first targets were totaled, the score was once again tied. Going into the next round, Simmons went one up on Greenway for the win. Diane Sorantino would win ladies by one target followed by Ashleigh Hafley who took first the Junior Concurrent. Veterans was won by Gary Greenway with Bruce Ney winning the Super-Veterans and Ray Gillespie winning the Senior Super-Veteran.
This year’s main event targets were stepped up to challenge the record crowds. This is our fourth Seminole at Quail Creek, and it is by far the best set of targets we have shot. It was a steady diet of harder presentations. Very few of the 28 stations had one “give me” target let alone two. The Blue course was the first course we shot. It is the more open of the two courses at Quail Creek. Station three, where we started, was a quick left to right crosser followed by a right side quartering target. As we made our way around the course, it would prove to be one of the easier stations we would shoot on the Blue side. Over the course of the two day event, we were treated time and time again to stations with well thought out presentations. There were a few where the window of opportunity could have stayed open a little longer, but all in all the pairs were well matched and fair. The red course was set with the same level of difficulty with what I thought was a little more speed. The targets were all visible and well within range without being over the top. Anthony Matarese would post the highest score of the event on the Red with a score of 93. Unfortunately the Blue course had already inflicted its damage leaving him with a score of 77 for a total of 170 which would only be good enough for Master 6th.
Going into day two, Dan Carlisle had put himself in the lead by posting a score of 92 on the red course. It would be one of only 5 scores that were above 90 all weekend long, two of which Dan owned. Coming off of his Nationals win at the end of last year, he was looking to add another HOA trophy to the collection. He went on to post a score of 90 on the blue, leaving himself in place for HOA with a total of 182. That finish would put him two targets ahead of Doug Vine who took the Runner-up spot with a score of 180. The top 5 was rounded out by Andy Duffy, Herbert Kanzki and Curtis Mauldin. Ashleigh Hafley secured both the Ladies and Junior Concurrent in the Main event as well as adding the 5-Stand to her win list for the weekend. Gary Greenway once again started racking up the All American points early by winning the Veterans Concurrent with Steve Fischer taking home the Super-Veteran trophy. David Radulovich would win Sub-Juniors and Bill Robb would take Senior Super-Veteran.
With the quality of the targets and how well everything ran, Quail Creek put on a Seminole Cup that will be remembered for quite some time. They have definitely raised the bar a bit, and we will have to wait and see how they answer the call for next year’s event.
Here is a link to the scores for all of the events from the 2008 Seminole. Pictures of the event and the awards are also available in our picture section.
