“NoveskColt” Wins Round 1 of Team Series
Noveske’s Romero, Jones and Colt’s Upchurch Team Up For Victory
(l. to r.) Rob Romero, Clint Upchurch and Jansen Jones delivered a dominating performance in Topton.
3GN Staff Report
The Topton Fish & Game Association has been the home to the 3-Man 3-Gun Championship for the last 3 years. However, this year Match Director Dean DeTurk decided to expand the match and bring the 3-Man 3-Gun match format to a larger level. DeTurk, a seasoned 3-gunner, who is also on the 3-Gun Nation Pro Series Tour, decided on a two-match format in which teams are required to shoot both events accumulating points at each one. The two events’ points are combined for a grand total to decide the winner of the championship series after the end of the second event. Additionally, DeTurk brought on board firearms industry heavy weight Colt Manufacturing as the title sponsor. This is the first 3-gun event in memory in which Colt has agreed to be the title sponsor. Needless to say, the applications started to pour into the mail box.
Event one was held at the Topton Fish & Game Association range in Topton, Penn., on May 20thand brought out more than 55 teams from as far away as Florida to compete for the title of the nation’s top team. This one day event had six dynamic stages, forcing the teams to solve shooting problems which consisted of a rolling thunder array, several liner relay races and a stage which involved full size poppers that must be shot with the pistol but the clay bird that came up had to be shot with shotgun. The stages described above are just some examples of the team planning and coordination that was required in order to successfully negotiate the match.
Spike's Tactical's Ben Powell engages shotgun targets during a stage at the Topton 3-Man 3-Gun Event.
Competition was stiff as shooters from the last two years winning teams were back looking for another 3-Man 3-Gun title. Greg Jordan, a 3-Gun Nation Pro Series Competitor and someone who has been in several 3GN Shoot-Offs, was wearing his new FNH USA colors, came back with two new teammates to defend his title from last year. This time, Jordan would shoot alongside fellow FNH USA newcomers Jayson Smith and Karla Herdzik instead of last year’s team of Dean DeTurk and Robbie Wheaton.
Smith & Wesson’s Dave Olhasso, who was part of the 2010 3 Man 3-Gun winning team, was back with James McGinty and Barry Ruane. Olhasso is a seasoned competitor and was named to shoot on Team USA at last years IDPA World Shoot. Perennial shooting powerhouse and USPSA/IPSC legend Todd Jarrett surprised the competitor field when he showed up with a team looking to make a statement in the 3-gun world. Jarrett is a 3-time Steel Challenge World Champion, 6-time USPSA Open National Champion and holds numerous area and regional championships going back decades.
The father of 3-Man 3-Gun in Pennsylvania, Howard Thompson, whose team came off a win two weeks ago at the York, Pennsylvania 3-Man 3-Gun match was there looking to win the match and keep the title in his home state of PA.
Cameron Thompson, of Spike's Tactical, engages rifle targets on his way to a second place finish in Topton.
However, when the smoke cleared Team “NoveskColt” consisting of The Noveske Shooting Team’s Rob Romero & Jansen Jones with Colt’s lone professional shooter Clint Upchurch, came together to run away with the first event of this two-event series. Both Jones & Upchruch are 3-Gun Nation Pro Series competitors and Romero is the Director of Competition for 3-Gun Nation.
“We have been coming to this match since 2010 and in my opinion this is the most fun and most challenging outlaw match in the country,” Romero said. “It’s one reason we don’t mind driving 12 hours from Atlanta to Topton to shoot it… it is that good.”
Jones added, “We have been trying to win this match for the last 3 years… last year we came up just short of winning it and two years ago we felt we should have won; however, some costly penalties kept us from our goal. We believed that this year could be the year. Katie Harris was unable to attend because of her brother’s high school graduation, so we asked our good friend Clint Upchruch if he would be willing to partner up with us.”
“Clint is a natural fit with our team” said Romero, “we get along really well; we all have similar shooting styles, stage break down techniques and the same match mentality.”
Event two takes place at the Peacemaker National Training Center in West Virginia on July 14-15th.
Results from Event One can be found here: http://toptonfga.org/IPSC/results_2012/Colt_3man_team_results_final.pdf
Video of Jones, Romero and Upchurch can be seen here:
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