Army JROTC Western Regional Rifle Championship
Walla Walla High School’s JROTC Rifle Teams traveled to Sandy, Utah, on February 4-8, 2026, for the Army JROTC Western Regional Rifle Championship. 86 of the top qualifying Army ROTC high school marksmen from across the northern region of the US met at Mountain America Expo Center for the two-day match.
The Utah match is the first of three matches that pitted the top Army JROTC shooters against each other, vying for honors and an invitation to the All Service JROTC National Championship in March. Over 450 high school JROTC programs compete in local qualifying matches to gain an invitation to the event. The team, captained this year by Cadet Captain Eveyln Wolf, received invitations for both the precision class and sporter class rifle teams. Sporter Team members are Cadet Captains Jaycee Cox and Melissa Villegas, Cadet Lieutenant Wyatt Postlewait, Cadet Command Sergeant Major Noah Kaheaku, and Cadet Sergeant Noah Hein.
Serving on the Precision Team are Wolf, Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Sofie Edwards, Cadet Major Claire Calvert, Cadet First Sergeant Marcus Goin, and Cadet Staff Sergeant Peytin Munns.
The match consisted of two days of Olympic-style air rifle shooting, with competitors firing 20 record shots from each of three firing positions: kneeling, prone, and standing. Each shot is worth a total of 10 points, with each competitor shooting a daily score out of a possible 600.
The Blue Devil sporter team shot a total of 2086 on day one, led by Kaheaku who produced a 530, followed by Villegas at 529, Cox at 527, Hein at 516, and Postlewait with a 513. Their team score put them in 4th place overall at the conclusion of the first day’s competition.
The Precision team finished the first day with a team total of 2262, putting them in 2nd place, behind the team from Fountain High School from Fort Carson, Colorado. Calvert held WAHI’s top score of the day with a 585, including a pair of targets from the standing position that were both 98s. Edwards posted a 573 on the first day, and new sophomore precision shooter Munns surprised the team with its’ next highest score of 560, including a 99 in the kneeling position. “I made up my mind today that I was going to trust my instincts and enjoy myself.” Said Calvert on Friday, “I knew I had to make up some ground after a lower kneeling score than I wanted, and I felt that I could count on my standing position.”
At the end of the first day, Calvert held the number two spot in the precision class.
On the second day of competition, the sporter team turned in a much better score of 2102, bettering their placement to 2nd place overall. The team was led by Hein this time at a 536, followed closely by Villegas with a 531, Kaheaku at 529, Cox at 525, and Postlewait with a 512.
In the precision class, the Blue Devils turned in a slightly lower score of 2256 on the second day of the match, dropping into third place. Calvert again led the precision squad with a 583, bolstered again by an excellent score in the standing position with a 99 on her first set and a 97 on her second, giving her a career high two-day total of 1168 and placing her in 2nd place overall going into the final match. Munns surprised the Blue Devils again, setting a new personal record on Saturday with a 562.
The championship concluded with a final match on Saturday afternoon. In the final, the 8 shooters with the highest 2-day totals traded blows for nearly an hour, with timed sets of 15 shots in kneeling and prone, a timed set of 10 shots in standing, then trading shot for shot in the standing position as each shooter was eliminated by lowest score on each subsequent shot until one remained.
In the precision final, Calvert struggled with her first set in kneeling, putting her in 7th place before moving to her prone set. She held her ground in prone, knowing that standing would be her strongest position. As the elimination shots began, she had clawed her way into a tie for 3rd, but on her 4th elimination shot, she posted an 8, putting her out in 5th place.
“This is the match I’ve been trying to have all year,” Said Calvert of her two-day performance. “It was great to have everything come together here.”
In the sporter class final, two Blue Devils, Villegas and Kaheaku, occupied two of the top eight positions. Villegas started with a bumpy first set in kneeling, dropping to 6th place. Kaheaku finished the first timed set in 3rd place, a position that he would occupy for most of the final. On Villegas’ second kneeling set, she punched four near-perfect center x tens, jumping suddenly from 6th to 1st place. For the next 30 minutes, the 8 sporter class shooters battled, with Villegas widening her lead and the contest developing into a shot-for-shot duel with Zachary Schlundt from Lebanon High School in Oregon. In the standing timed set, Schlundt overtook Villegas and managed to hold onto that position until the final elimination shot that won the Western Regional Championship for him by 2.3 points, with Villegas taking silver and Kaheaku bringing home the bronze.
The Blue Devils returned home to train for their next contest in Hermiston, Oregon, at the end of February and await team and individual selections for the All Service Nationals in Camp Perry in March.
