Gloucester Alumni

By Kristen Grieco
Staff Writer, Gloucester Daily Times

The Gloucester High School Junior ROTC Rifle Team returned from the U.S. Eastern Regional JROTC Match in Georgia with a team trophy and a personal record for its top shooter.

The varsity team — Selina Clancy, Melissa Strangman, Jessica Pascucci and Kurt Wheeler — came in second place in the team match. First place went to R-S Central High School of Rutherfordton, N.C.

Freshman Sarah Taylor placed sixth in the alternates match, which coach Richard Muth called "quite an accomplishment for a first-year competitor." Tyler Landergren also traveled to the match with the team.

The JROTC Rifle Team has about a dozen members, but only a few are chosen to go to long-distance matches. The team has a long history of winning, as evidenced by rows of plaques and trophies dating back to the 1920s lining the entry hall into the school.

The team now advances to a national competition next month, again traveling to Fort Benning, Ga., to take on qualifying teams from around the country.

Muth said that the second-place finish was hard-fought, with several of the winning team's shooters achieving near-perfect scores. In fact, as they wrapped up the competition, Muth joked to the winning team's coach that Gloucester would eventually get them. "He said, 'I know you will. We're always thinking of you,'" Muth said.

Clancy also set a new national Marine Corps JROTC record for shooting in the prone position, scoring 197 out of 200. The record she broke was her own, set last year while firing at the Olympic Training Center at Colorado Springs.