by Jack Grehan

 

Columbus area resident Hal Hare successfully challenged the defending State Champion and neighbor, Michael Peresetsky, winning the 2006 Ohio State International Skeet title in competition held September 15-17, 2006 at Wilmington, Ohio’s Clinton County Farmers' & Sportsman's Association.

 

International Skeet is the more challenging Olympic version of the popular clay target game of skeet, and in many respects much closer to the game originally invented in the United States.  The Safelite Auto Glass sponsored tournament actually consisted of two events, a 100 target Preliminary match shot in four rounds of 25 targets per round on Friday, and the Championship 225 target match shot over Saturday and Sunday.  

 

The Preliminary Title was closely contested with only two targets separating the top three shooters.  When the clay dust settled, All-Ohio shooter Mike Tobler of Morrow [OH] emerged as the Preliminary Champ, breaking a solid 86x100 targets.  All-American Terry Thompson of Circleville [OH] took the Runner Up honors with a fine score of 85x100.    Class B-1 honors went to All-Ohio shooter Jack Grehan of Midland [OH] with an 84x100 and A-1 honors went to All-American Hal Hare with an 82x100.  

 

Knowledgeable International competitors quickly noticed Hare’s trusty CSMC Model 21 side by side shotgun was nowhere in sight.  Many expressed concern about his being able to make the switch from SxS to an O&U configuration in just one day.  In fact, Hal’s Zoli O&U had never been fired prior to the Preliminary match—and displayed Hal’s confidence in this new shotgun.  [editors note: the Zoli Z-gun could be described as an MX-8 taken to the next level of refinement.]

 

The Preliminary match actually served as squadded practice for Hare, as he transitioned to the new Z-gun.  The speculation was laid to rest on Saturday with Hare posting a single target lead over defending champion Mike Peresetsky, also of Columbus, by shooting a near perfect 24 out of 25 in the first round.  Peresetsky came back in the second round with a 24 to Hare’s 23 and tied the score up.  Hare recaptured the lead in round 3, again shooting a near perfect 24 while Peresetsky dropped two targets for a 23.  Hare then shot a perfect round with the Zoli, breaking all 25 targets.  This was one of only three perfect rounds to be shot during the event, with Hare shooting two of them.  Peresetsky was unable to keep up dropping 3 targets in the 4th round.  The 5th and final round for Saturday ended with both men posting 23’s.  As the end of day one, Hare’s 119x125 placed him four targets ahead of his Columbus shooting pal Peresetsky.  

 

The lead was not insurmountable, but would have required Hare to continue shooting as he had been while Peresetsky needed to turn in perfect 25’s for the rest of the match.  The remaining 4 of the top 6 competitors needed a to fire near perfect scores themselves in order to challenge the leaders.  

 

Sunday dawned with another perfect shooting day with little wind.  Hare continued to increase his lead through the first two rounds Sunday, and then turned in another perfect 25x25 in the 8th round of the two day match.  

 

The scores for the top six now stood at Hare [189x200], Peresetsky [182x200], Tobler [173x200], Wildman [172x200], Thompson [166x200], and Grehan [165x200].  Hare with a 7 target lead would have to stumble badly for Peresetsky to win now in the finals-- and it was not to be.  Hare turned in another near perfect 24x25 for a final score of 213x225 while Peresetsky shot a 22 for a final of 204x225.

 

The real races in the final 6 round were Mike Tobler with a 173 vs. Eben Wildman, a 16 year old junior from South Charleston, OH with a score of 172, and Terry Thompson with a 166 vs. Jack Grehan with a 165.  

 

In the same final six shootout, Tobler left the door open for Wildman, shooting a 21 for a final of 194x225 and Wildman waltzed through, shooting a 23 and capturing 3rd place with a 195/225, leaving Tobler in 4th.   Thompson and Grehan both shot 23’s and finished 5th and 6th respectively with 189x225 and 188x225 as final scores.