Rock Crushers blast through state shoot

The Libby Rock Crushers took their shotguns on the road to Missoula and Polson for the Scholastic Clay Target Program state shoot June 13 and 14. Libby’s Roy Hyde won the individual varsity skeet championship.

The Rock Crusher varsity team of Colton Moore, Roy Hyde and Dameon Kelch won first place in trap. The varsity team of Colton Moore, Roy Hyde, Dameon Kelch, Isaac O’Rourke and Cyrus Sweedman won third place in the trap competition. 

Libby’s two intermediate teams also fared well, with the team of Isaac O’Rourke, Cyrus Sweedman and Austin Rasmussen taking the skeet championship and the team of Isaac O’Rourke and Cyrus Sweedman taking third in sporting clays.

Kelch said he enjoys the shooting sports because it’s therapeutic.

“It takes the stress out of everything else,” he said. “It’s good to be with a bunch of kids blowing things up.”

Kelch’s top memory of the year was shooting 49 out of a possible 50 at the Western Regionals held in Libby a few weeks ago. His goal for next season is to win the high overall championship at the state meet.

Cyrus Sweedman, who is in his rookie year as a competitive shooter, said he enjoys everything about the sport. 

“I just love guns,” he said. “I love shooting and spending time in the outdoors.”

Sweedman said he got started in the sport because of his friend Isaac O’Rourke.

“I was staying over at Isaac’s house one night, he invited me to come shooting and I got hooked,” he said.

Sweedman’s goal for next season is to improve his overall shooting scores.

Austin Rasmussen is also new to the sport. He started shooting with the team less than two months ago. 

“I’ve always kind of liked to shoot,” he said. “Then Thelma at my church signed me up.”

Rasmussen said he’ll be back on the team next year and is looking forward to getting better.

“I don’t know what my goal really is,” he said. “I just need to work on everything.”

Isaac O’Rourke said he has been shooting with the team for about a year and a half, after he was recruited by his neighbor, who also happens to be the team’s coach, Mike Cirian.

He said his favorite memory of the season was shooting sporting clays at the state meet in Polson last weekend.

“It was on a course,” he said. “We had to walk all around the complex and shoot at different targets from different places.”

Cirian and the team’s other coach, Tom Bailey, are proud of the program and their young shooters.

“What I really like about this team, we get older kids and younger kids and they hang out together,” Cirian said. “They pick on each other like little brothers, but they’re very supportive of each other.”

Cirian and Bailey said they hope to get shooting listed with Libby High School as a letter-qualifying sport soon. 

“We share the same goal as the school,” Bailey said. “To get the kids off the couch and outside doing something.”

At an average shoot, the kids shoot 300 shells each, which can become cost-prohibitive for some. Cirian said the Rock Crushers do a great deal of fundraising and raffles to help off-set the cost. The team also accepts donations through the Montana Scholastic Clay Target Program. The program is a registered 501(c)3, so donations are all tax-deductible and are able to be directed to the program of choice by contributors.