The Emmaus rifle team concluded its 2022-2023 season with medal-winning performances in individual and team competitions.

The Green Hornets finished third in the state small bore prone team championship last Tuesday in unofficial results, behind winner Penn Trafford and second place Butler.

Griffin Lake the way for Emmaus with a 204.1 score, followed by Madison Carriero, Zachary Brenner, Rowan Kurtz and Shannon Anders in the top five. Aubrey Marshall, Sanaiya O’Neal, Molly Yard, Bryce Dunn and Kaden Issa concluded the Green Hornet roster.

“We didn’t perform quite as well as we did last year, but I’m still very happy with the results that the team achieved, Emmaus coach Michael Schuler said. “It’s very hard to repeat in this sport, and we saw that fact in our scores; even if we shot the same score as last year which won us states, we would have still ended up in third place.”

The bronze medal finish is still an accomplishment, the coach said.

“In my eyes that doesn’t diminish anything our kids did this year,” the coach said. “We had three students place in the top 20 scores individually. At the end of the day, we all want to win and be the best. But placing third in the state isn’t anything to hang our heads about.”

One Emmaus shooter who never struggled this year or any year was Lake, and the Feb. 9 individual competition was no exception. The Hornet senior won the state prone individual championship with a 416 score. Yard finished 16th overall. Brenner took 18th and O’Neal 38th.

With the season now in the rear view mirror, Schuler evaluated the campaign.

“I’m struggling to find a bad part of the season,” the coach said. “States could have gone better, and we would have loved if it did, but I don’t think our result was ‘bad.’ We definitely weren’t content just resting on our laurels heading into the season, and I expect to have the same thought process next year as well. It worked out for us this season; the best record in the regular season, the best pair of shooters as a team at the All-Star match, and the winner of the postseason tournament.

Finishing third could actually spur the club to take care of unfinished business next year.

“The nice thing about coming up short is that it’s just motivation. We won states last year, but hadn’t won the tournament or the league. This year we won the league and tournament but not states. I’m eager to see what we can do to put it all together for next year.”