Reprint from the Progress Times - August 22, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

 

Sharyland hooter reaches final round in Olympics

 

By Daivd Rodriguez

After becoming the first student from his college, Lindenwood University, to qualify for the Olympic Games, Sean McLelland, 22, placed 11th in the Men’s Skeet competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

McLelland, who hit 118 targets out of 125 to qualify for the finals, first took up competitive shotgun shooting in the 4-H Club when he was 14 years old. In his senior year at Sharyland High School, 2004, McLelland became the High Overall Individual National 4-H Shooting Champion as well as the President of the Sharyland High School 4-H Group.

Sean then began attending Lindenwood University, a four-year Liberal Arts institution in St. Charles, Missouri where Joe Steenbergen had, just two years prior, started the Lindenwood University shooting program which has become a nationally-ranked university shotgun shooting team. Sean is currently majoring in business.

McLelland’s brief history has been illustrious since then. In 2006 Sean was awarded the Spring Selection Match gold medal. In 2007 he received the Fall Selection Match silver medal and earlier this year Sean made the U.S. Olympic Team by placing second at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials where he hit 502 out of 525 targets.

International Skeet is one of three Olympic shotgun shooting events. It differs from American Skeet in consistency of targets. International Skeet targets are made of harder material. International Skeet shooters must also wait longer after calling for the target than

in American Skeet competitions.

McLelland, who averages better than 24 targets out of 25 per round, held his own but was unable to overtake the other international shooters.