This is an official press release from USPSA.
Tar Heel Top Gun Wins Summer Blast Production Title
Tar Heel Top Gun Wins Summer Blast Production Title
Sedro-Woolley, WA — It was better late than never as one of the Tar Heel state’s top guns, Michael Hollar of Conover, won the Production Division title in the final moments of the United States Practical Shooting Association’s (USPSA) 8th Annual Summer Blast.
Hollar battled back and forth for the lead with John Kruszka, and Nestor Laserna with each controlling the match at one point. Hollar won the first stage but immediately gave up the lead to Laserna before reclaiming it on the third and holding it through the sixth stage.
On stage seven, Kruszka of Woodbridge, New Jersey, surged ahead followed by a win on the eighth and carried the lead through the ninth. But the ninth course of fire set up Hollar for his move on the title. With a strong performance Hollar won the ninth stage leaving him just over 11 match points behind Kruszka.
The tenth and final stage gave Hollar his last shot at the title and he took it.
“Michael didn’t win the tenth stage but he shot it strong enough to pick up more than 27 match points on John and the match win. Shooting matches can turn on a dime and the Production Division battle clearly showed that. We congratulate Michael and the others on a great match and we look forward to watching this rematch next year,” said Larry Houck, match director of the Summer Blast.
Final results for the Production Division had Hollar winning with 1153.0291 points. Kruszka finished second with 1137.4748 while Laserna claimed third with 1087.3557. Rounding out the top five were Jason Jones of Fredericksburg, Virginia, with a score of 1074.8756 and John Tew of Sewell, New Jersey, with 1070.3317 to take fourth and fifth respectively.
The USPSA Summer Blast charity pistol match was held July 10-13 at the York Izaak Walton League in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. Since its inception, the match has raised over $15,000 for local charities. A total of 331 top shooters, a record number, competed this year for titles in USPSA’s Open, Limited, Limited-10, Production, Revolver and Single Stack divisions.
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About USPSA: The United States Practical Shooting Association is a non-profit membership association affiliated with the International Practical Shooting Confederation (I.P.S.C.), which is comprised of approximately 67 nations. USPSA’s now 17,000+ members and 350 affiliated clubs make it the largest and fastest growing Practical Shooting sport. For more information visit www.uspsa.org.
