Baker trap shooters extend conference lead with team win at Bend

Baker High School’s trap shooters kept their grip on Conference 1 with a team win at Bend Trap Club on Saturday, extending a season that already looks like another run at the top for the two-time defending Class 2A state champions.

After three weeks of competition, the Bulldogs stood first in the conference with 6,660 points. Newberg sat second at 5,115.50, leaving Baker with a 1,544.5-point lead in a sport where week-to-week depth matters as much as any single standout round.

The margin reinforces what Baker has built under coach Zack Kimball: a program that has turned a small-school roster into one of Oregon’s most dependable clay target powers. Baker won its first conference title in 2024 by more than 2,000 points after piling up 9,887 team points over five weeks, then followed that with the Class 2A state championship on June 23, 2024, by breaking 472 of 500 targets.

The Bulldogs repeated as state champions on June 22, 2025, in Hillsboro with a team score of 467. That was enough to edge Crook County by two shots and Newberg by five. Riley Hurliman led the girls division with 94 hits out of 100 targets, while Christopher Schuh tied for third in the boys standings with 95, including a perfect 50-for-50 second session.

Baker’s strength has come from numbers as well as top-end talent. Before the 2025 state tournament, Kimball said the team had 40 registered shooters, 33 qualifiers and 30 students headed to Hillsboro. The Bulldogs also held both the High Overall Male and High Overall Female shooters and accounted for 12 of the state’s top 50 shooters, evidence that the program’s edge runs deeper than one or two names at the top of the scoreboard.

That depth has kept Baker in the public eye beyond the range. After the 2024 state title, the team raised $8,000 to fund championship rings for its 24 members, and local supporter Rocky Brown urged the community to back the effort. With the 2026 Oregon Trap Shooting State Tournament set for June 27-28 at Bend Trap Club, and more than 50 high school teams and 650 student athletes expected, Baker’s latest conference win positions the Bulldogs to enter another state meet from a place of strength.