SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. — Kay Miculek of Princeton, La. came from behind on the final stage of the match to edge out Athena Lee of Katy, Texas and win the Lady’s Open division title at the at the U.S. Practical Shooting Association’s (USPSA) 2010 Area 4 Handgun Championship sponsored by firearms maker STI International.
In what would be the closest contest of the six division handgun championship, Lee started the match in first place after winning stage one, but then fell behind Lisa Munson of Marysville, Wash. who won the next two stages.
However it was on stage four that the match turned in Miculek’s favor.
After winning the fourth stage Miculek jumped to the head of the pack giving herself a 37 point lead over Lee. Over the next six stages Miculek held the lead while Lee chipped away at it with four stage wins to Miculek’s one.
On stage 11 Lee finally overtook Miculek by a mere 1.4943 points after winning the stage and heading to a showdown on the last stage of the match.
With the title on the line, Miculek posted a stage winning score of 116.0282 to Lee’s 113.3370 giving her a 2.6912 point advantage that was enough to outpace Lee for the win.
Miculek finished the match with a final score of 1064.6003, just 1.1969 points over Lee’s 1063.4034.
“The one match to watch at the Area 4 Championship was the battle for the Lady’s Open title. Both Kay and Athena are exceptional shooters and fierce competitors as evidenced by the nail-biter of a finish. Congratulations go to both women on an outstanding shooter performance,” said Michael Voigt, president of USPSA.
Third place in the women’s race went to Cameron’s Custom Guns’ Lisa Munson who won a total of three stages but finished well out of first with 950.3120. Fourth place went to Sue VanBlaricum of Lafayette, Tenn. with a score of 735.5503.
The STI Area 4 Handgun Championship was held at the Shootout Range in Princeton, La. The match drew 230 top shooters from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, the four states that make up Area 4, as well as Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin and Canada.
The next regional championship on the practical shooting calendar is the Canyon Creek Area 5 Championship scheduled for June 10-13 at the Tri County Gun Club in Polo, Ill. For more information on USPSA, upcoming matches and full match results, visit www.USPSA.org.
The Women's Outdoor News, aka The WON, features news, reviews and stories about women who are shooting, hunting, fishing and actively engaging in outdoor adventure. This publication is for women, by women. View all posts by The WON
I consider beating Athena an honor. She is the best in the world. A stage with twelve shots at 50 yards and twelve shots at 25 yards was my salvation. I gained thirty points on that one stage. Other than that I only had two other stage wins. Luckily, one of those stage wins was the last stage that allowed me to squeak by Athena.
The weekend before Area 4 Athena and I shot the Mississippi Classic. At that match Athena beat me by thirty points and she had four misses! She inspired me to get out and practice. As usual, practice paid off.
Wow! Way to go Kay! Another inspirational performance! I’m so lucky I’ve learned from both of you.
I love seeing Kay step up to the plate and take on Athena Lee, who is the reigning female world handgun “IPSC” champion. No disrepect paid to Athena; she’s a wonderful example for women shooters across the world. In this case the “range Gods” smiled on Kay and these gals, who are great friends by the way, will meet another day and battle it out over another big match.
One point can be like one-tenth of a second, right, Kay? Congrats … sounds like you dug to get this one and we’re all proud of you!