Dardas Sets Multiple Records During 2025 JROTC Service Championships

By Ashley Dugan, CMP Staff Writer

Through the weekends of Feb. 6-8, Feb. 13-15 and Feb. 16-18, a group of 1,110 youth cadets participated in the annual JROTC Three-Position Service Championship – part two of the annual JROTC Air Rifle Championship series. The JROTC Three-Position Service Championship saw a dramatic rise in participation in 2025, with a 28 percent increase from last year’s event.

Facilitated by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), the JROTC Air Rifle Service Championship is a two-day 3×20 air rifle competition for sporter and precision athletes where competitors fire 20 record shots from three positions: kneeling, prone and standing. The top eight athletes at each location (Utah, Alabama and Ohio) also participate in a final to determine award winners.

The top three competitors from each service included:

Army: 

Alabama Sporter:

1. Colin Donnelly, 17, Newsome High School, FL
2. Valeria Alvarado, 18, North Brunswick High School, NC
3. Ryan Roman, 17, Mulberry High School, FL

Alabama Precision:

1. Mallory Edwards, 16, Sarasota Military Academy, FL
2. Drew Ridinger, 18, Ozark High School, MO
3. Grace Bledsoe, 18, Claudia Taylor Johnson High School, TX

Ohio Sporter:

1. Kaitlynn Burrell, 17, Walhalla High School, SC 
2. Katelyn Miller, 18, Webb City High School, MO
3. Johnathon Tatum, 17, Webb City High School, MO

Ohio Precision:

1. Aurora Mayo, 17, Stuttgart High School, AE
2. Eden Skidmore, 16, Lewis County High School, KY
3. Sophia Durant, 17, Wiesbaden High School, AE

Utah Sporter:

1. Nayeli Cruz, 17, Robert McQueen High School, NV
2. Sariga Suresh, 18, Pueblo County High School, CO
3. Allyson Aguirre, 16, Procter R Hug High School, NV

Utah Precision:

1. Kelsey Dardas, 14, of Fountain Fort Carson High School, CO
2. Nayleen Campos, 18, Fountain Fort Carson High School, CO
3. Element Kimble, 18, Fountain Fort Carson High School, CO

Marine Corps:

Sporter: 

1. Shiloh Hargrove, 17, Jack C. Hays High School, TX
2. Joshua Prince, 16, Fort Mill High School, SC
3. Brooklyn Zeigler, 17, Daniel Boone High School, TN

Precision:

1. Kennedy Wells, 17, Granbury High School, TX
2. Ashley Haymond, 16, Shelby County High School, KY
3. Mackenzie Sookhoo, 18, East Coweta High School, GA

Navy:

Sporter:

1. Brianna Benedetto, 18, Zion Benton High School, IL
2. Chloe Cappetto, 17, Volunteer High School, TN
3. Makayla Lovato, Highland High School, NM

Precision:

1. Brooklyn Reames, 17, Joshua High School, TX
2. Logan Hall, 16, Floyd Central High School, IN
3. Madison Thompson, 17, Oak Harbor High School, WA

Air Force:

Sporter:

1. Wyatt Hamlin, 16, North Pole High School, AK
2. Layla Briggs, 17, Haughton High School, LA
3. Dalton Piotrowski, 18, McMichael High School, NC

Precision:

1. Evan Williams, 17, Menchville High School, VA
2. Katelynn McEntee, 16, Sickles AFJROTC High School, FL
3. Auriana Davis, 16, Kaiserslautern High School, AE 

Congratulations also to Kelsey Dardas, who fired the highest combined qualification score through all services and set two new Three-Position Precision Individual 3×20 records for her outstanding Day 2 score of 598-51X (U15 Age Group and Army JROTC), as well as to Brooklyn Zeigler, who reached the highest combined qualification score for sporter.

Coinciding with the individual event was the four-person team match for both sporter and precision in each service branch. Leading teams were:

Army:

• Precision: Fountain Fort Carson High School, Colorado – 4683-306X
• Sporter: Webb City High School, Missouri – 4322-149X

Marine Corps:

• Precision: Granbury High School, Texas – 4712-335X
• Sporter: Jack C. Hays High School, Texas – 4380-152X

Navy:

• Precision: Floyd Central High School, Indiana – 4696-330X
• Sporter: Zion Benton High School, Illinois – 4330-124X

Air Force:

• Precision: Kaiserslautern High School, AE (Germany) – 4646-270X
• Sporter: North Pole High School, Alaska – 4258-115X

Top scorers overall will move on to the JROTC National Championship, set to be held at the Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center at Camp Perry, Ohio, March 20-22.

Find a complete list of results of the JROTC Service Championships, including top scorers from each location, on the CMP’s Competition Tracker page at https://ct.thecmp.org/2025JROTCServiceResults. 

More info on the JROTC Championships may be found on the CMP website at https://thecmp.org/youth/jrotc/. Photos from all locations are available for free viewing and download at https://cmp1.zenfolio.com/f992416689. 

The Civilian Marksmanship Program is a federally chartered 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. It is dedicated to firearm safety and marksmanship training and to the promotion of marksmanship competition for citizens of the United States. For more information about the CMP and its programs, log onto www.TheCMP.org.