Published: July 03, 2008 05:51 pm         

Gardendale teenager qualifies for national meet

Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Gardendale’s Lauren Hyde has a national title in her sights. In August, Hyde will take aim at a national team trap shooting title when her team Southern Thunder will compete in Sparta, Ill. in August for the Grand National team title.

Hyde, 16 years old, has been shooting for more than a decade.

“I’ve been deer hunting and bird hunting since I was four years old,” she said. “I’ve shot pretty much all my life. A few years ago, some friends of mine decided to form a trap shooting team and they asked me to join and I’ve been shooting with them ever since.”

Hyde, who will be a junior this fall at Gardendale High School, and her Thunder teammates finished third at the state meet, but the top three finish qualifies the foursome for the national meet. According to Hyde, the Thunder should have made a better showing at state.

“The wind was blowing hard and it was storming,” she said. “We didn’t shot as well as we usually do. Our team still did well, but we are usually better than we were that day.”

The Thunder finished 60 traps behind the winning team, scoring 867 out of 1,000 traps.

For Hyde, the meet was a continuation of an outstanding year shooting.

In June, she won the Amateur Trap Association’s Class C Ladies state title.

In years past, she won the Scholastic Clay Target Program Junior Novice title and later she won the Overall Ladies state title.

Her success has spawned several goals for the future, including competing on the international level.

“I plan on going to the Junior Olympics and compete in Bunker Trap shooting,” Hyde said. “I hope to qualify in both my junior and senior years in high school.”

Beyond her high school years, Hyde hopes to compete at the college level.