2022-2023 William Penn Shotgun Sports Preview
After the meteoric rise to winning a national crown last year, the William Penn shotgun sports team will seek even bigger riches in the 2022-2023 season.
Head Coach Steve Heaton guided the Statesmen to an ACUI Division 4 national title last March and has his top shooters back, while also supplementing the crew with an imposing cast of newcomers.
The ACUI has been dismantled, giving way to the National Collegiate Shooting Sports Athletic Association as the sports’ new governing body. That will be the crown most college squads, including WPU, will be chasing. Of note, the NCSSAA titles will be broken up by division, so the Statesmen will only face off against NAIA institutions, leveling the playing ground compared to previous championship models.
William Penn’s cabinet is stocked, but leading the way is Raylee Bishop (So., Ankeny, Iowa, Engineering), who is coming off a huge summer with numerous titles throughout the country. She won four High Overall Athlete honors last year as a freshman.
The eldest Statesmen, Bryon Baca (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Christopher Berkshire-Lewis (Jr., Kansas City, Mo., Business Management), will lead the squad in various way, especially in regards to leadership, while Dominick Ver Meer (Jr., Pella, Iowa) and Mathew Brindley (So., Earlham, Iowa, Industrial Technology) both enjoyed large success last year in their first seasons donning the navy and gold. Ver Meer claimed a pair of HOA wins a year ago, while Brindley had one HOA title.
Fellow returners Lane Arrowood (So., Newton, Iowa, Biology), Hunter Block (Jr., Eldridge, Iowa, Business Management), Dryden DeKoning (So., Newton, Iowa, Business Management), Kade Dunkin (So., Hamilton, Iowa, Biology), and KayLynn Sieber (So., Marshall, Minn., Biology) all had huge freshmen campaigns in 2021-2022 and will be looked at for much of the same this season.
Ian Broadway (Fr., Racine, Wis., Biology), Brandon Nord (Fr., Hidden Valley Lake, Calif., New Media), Cade Bowie (Fr., Benton, Ark., Business Management), Madison Van Diest (Fr., Anaheim, Calif., Sociology), and Carver Van Zee (Fr., Pella, Iowa, Industrial Technology) headline the stout recruiting group that makes William Penn even more formidable.
Schedule
WPU travels to Riverside Saturday for its season opener at the Coe Invitational. A total of eight fall competitions are on the docket with the Statesmen hosting the William Penn Invitational on October 15-16 in Pella at Black Oak Clays.
NCSSAA Nationals will be contested in Las Vegas, Nev. from March 13-19.
