By George Gleich

PSSA held the 89th annual Pennsylvania State Open Skeet Championships as an iShoot on August 15-17. Eight clubs were involved: Carlisle Fish & Game Association, Clinton Irwin Rod & Gun Club, Generations Skeet Club, Liberty Township Sportsman Club, Library Sportsmen’s Association, Skyline Skeet and Trap LLC, Tarentum District Sportsmens Club and York/Adams County Game & Fish Association. The weather was hot and humid for most of the weekend, but there was scattered heavy rain and wind at several of the clubs on Sunday afternoon.

There were 234 participants, including 35 out-of-state shooters, and the shoot difficulty factor was 18.60. This has traditionally been one of if not the largest state shoot in the nation.

Open HOA winners were Kurt Suprynowicz (champion, 397), Sam Armstrong (Maryland, runner-up, 395) and Josh Crofutt (third, 393). Pennsylvania HOA winners were Suprynowicz (champion), Crofutt (runner-up) and Tyler Mroczka (third, 393).

Open HAA champion, runner-up and third, respectively, were Armstrong (494), Chris Kline (493) and Denny Lehman (491). Pennsylvania HAA honors went to Kline (Champion), Lehman (runner-up) and Crofutt (third, 489).

PA Champions, runners-up, and thirds, respectively, were: Kline, Brian Steinert, and Lehman in doubles; Adam Vollmer, Crofutt and Suprynowicz in the 12; Mroczka, Suprynowicz and Frank Smithmyer in the 20; Suprynowicz, Carl Phillips and Jack Harshbarger in the 28; and, Lehman, Suprynowicz and Evan Martin in the .410.

Class first places (PA) were: Crofutt, Kosmacki, Joe Vescovi, Steven Beam, Jake Hamilton, and Robert Woods, Jr. (doubles-AAA-D); Kline, Lehman, Alyssa Gormish, Mroczka, Tyler Wagner, Ethen Yanac and Martin Addis (12-gauge AAA-E); Nick Boerboon, Vollmer, Mark Eckert, John Lavrich, Jack Makdad and Wade Smith (20-gauge AAA-D); Crofutt, Smithmyer, Gary Nace, Colby Eckert, Tedd Stabolepszy and Jeff Meidinger (28-gauge AAA-D), and; Kline, Ethan Call, Rich Vensel, Jared Shaffer, Mike Rykacewski, Sr. and Tyler Jones (.410 bore AAA-D).

All Sub-Juniors (13) and Juniors (20) who shot the 12-gauge had 50% of their entry fees paid by PSSA. Jack Petrosky, Wade Smith and Barrett Carson, respectively, were Sub-Junior Open HOA Champion, runner-up and third. Tyler Jones, Weston Nichols (New York) and Luke Holtz, respectively, were Junior Open HOA Champion, runner-up, and third.

Twenty ladies participated. Open Lady HOA winners were Sue Huszai (Champion; Ohio), Alyssa Gormish (runner-up) and Missy Vescovi (third). PA Lady HOA winners were Alyssa (Champion), Missy (runner-up) and Meghan Darrough (third). PSSA’s deepest condolences go to Meghan and her family. Meghan’s dad David recently passed away. She and her father both shot their first 100-straights in the 12-gauge event at the 2019 State shoot, and Meghan was the PA gun champ. It was her dad’s favorite shooting memory.

PA’s All State teams for 2025 (2024 data) are: 1^st Team — Josh Crofutt (0.9846 HOA average), Chris Kline, Jack Harshbarger, Alyssa Gormish and Denny Lehman; 2^nd Team — Clay Gormish, Gary Nace, Paul Hunt, Jeff Groh and Debra Meade.

George Gleich was inducted into the PSSA Hall of Fame. George has been shooting registered skeet since 1999, is an NSSA Life Member and has 304,000 registered birds. He has enjoyed writing up skeet shoots for Clay Target Nation and Skeet Shooting Review for many years.

Denny Lehman orchestrated a fund drive that resulted in $21,700 added money. Huge thanks to Denny, Elite Shotguns, the major sponsor of the PA State Shoot, who matched donations received from businesses and individuals up to $10,000, and all those donors. Added money was capped so that gun champion, runner-up and third received $350, $250 and $150, respectively. All class first through fifth places received cash from added money (e.g., in the 12-gauge E1, E2, E3, E4, and E5 received $85, $80, $75, $70 and $65, respectively).

Kudos to: Tami Daniel-Means, shoot manager supreme; Mark Strickland, PSSA President, who was quite busy with many things before and during the shoot; and Pat Rizzo, a Super Veteran (93 years old) from Library Sportsmen’s Association, who shot a 77 in the 28 gauge!