Jewish Markswoman Hannah Black Continues Success!

Collegiate rifle star Hannah Black has been putting up some great scores lately!  Highlights from the article:

• Hannah Black turned in the top score in smallbore with a personal-best 592. Black tops her previous high of 585 to post the sixth-best smallbore mark in program history.

• “Hannah Black continues to refuse to accept anything but the best from herself with two strong air rifle scores and a nice first place finish with her 592 smallbore score at Ole Miss,” said Monez.

• Over the weekend, five Horned Frogs established personal bests in aggregate score. Black topped her career high of 1,181 with a 1,185 on Sunday

Mazal Tov!

Jewish Markswoman Hannah Black Makes US National Team!

Belated Mazal Tov to Hannah Black, who recently competed in qualifications for the National Team:

Shooting at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Black finished ahead of current OTC resident Amy Sowash and Olympian Amanda Furrer. The two-day event saw Black fire a 579, which was good enough to earn her a spot in the finals. She made her mark in on day two as she fired a national record 591 to propel her to the top of the podium. The score was one point off the World Record and topped her personal best by nine points. Her two-day score of 1,181 was two points better than Sowash's mark of 1,179. Her performance has earned her a spot on the squad that will compete at the World Cup in Changwon, Korea.

She was also featured in a recent Virginia news article, with a great quote

“That’s the nice thing about shooting,” she said. “You alone are responsible. You alone are accountable. What you accomplish is a reflection of how hard you’re willing to work and how much time you’re willing to put in. In a lot of respects, you’re always competing against yourself. Your goal for tomorrow is to be a little bit better than you were today.”

Go check out the entire article about Hannah!

Hannah and Josh Black Profiled in CMP Article

The Civilian Marksmanship Program recently ran an in depth article on Jewish Marksmen Hannah and Josh Black (http://www.odcmp.org/1213/default.asp?page=THEBLACKS).  Interestingly, the article made a point of discussing their Jewishness:

Religion is important to both Hannah and Josh as well. Having grown up with a strong Jewish background, they both directly state that it impacts their everyday lives – it affects how they view the world.
Josh is involved with a Jewish youth group at a Chabad synagogue and is a founding member of a Jewish Scout group. He can also chant Torah.
For Hannah, choosing to go to college at Texas Christian was worrisome at first, but she soon learned that TCU is very accepting of all students, even their Jewish students.

Check it out! (Thanks to Mike for sending the link!)

Jewish Markswoman Hannah Black Awarded TCU Athlete of the Week!

Hannah Black is a freshman at TCU (the Horned Frogs) and a member of the women's rifle team.  Her TCU web page describes her prior shooting accomplishments:

Earned a bronze medal at the 2012 Junior Olympic Shooting Championships... finished ninth overall at 2012 air rifle Olympic Trials... is a four-time National Junior Olympic participant... is the Virginia air rifle state champion... four-time state titlist in air pistol... won the 2010 American Legion National Championship in Air Rifle... personal-bests in 40-shot matches is 394 and 588 in 60-shot matches.

Earlier this week, Hannah was named a TCU "athlete of the week":

Black competed as an individual in the air rifle competition at the NCAA Championships. The freshman posted an aggregate score of 594 before advancing to the finals and shooting a 100.8 to finish in fifth place overall.

Mazal Tov to Hannah!

(Hannah is the sister of Josh Black, another Jewish Marksman).

Josh Black: Air Rifle Champion

Josh Black recently represented the tribe at the National Junior Olympic air rifle competition in Ohio, where he "won the championship in the 14-15 age group." Mazal Tov! You can read all about it in this great article (click). About shooting, Josh had this to say:

"I just love the sport," said Black, who was introduced to competitive marksmanship as a 12-year-old. "I've loved it from the first time I tried it. There's such a feeling of satisfaction when you hit the target. I enjoy the challenge, too. You're always trying to do better than you did the last time. You're always trying to beat a personal record or improve upon your last performance."

Josh's father chimed in with his view of shooting sports:

"It's actually quite a grueling thing," Scott said. "(Josh) practices five days a week for a couple of hours a day — at least. What he's doing, basically, is practicing the same thing — over and over and over again. Every other sport emphasizes movement and power, but not shooting. In shooting, the less you move, the better you perform. So you learn to concentrate and really lock in (on the target.) You learn to be calm. You learn to immediately forget a bad shot."

The article also mentions his sister Hannah who "earned a $2,500 scholarship by winning the American Legion air rifle championship last summer in Colorado Springs, Colo."