Fergus Falls shooter Mylie Piekarski earns Division I spot at Georgia Southern

A 49-for-50 conference round helped push Mylie Piekarski from Fergus Falls to a Division I commitment at Georgia Southern University. The Fergus Falls High School senior is now headed to one of the country’s most accomplished clay target programs after a season that also brought her a spot on the Minnesota State High School League’s 2025 Clay Target Top Gun All-State Team in the girls division.

Piekarski’s rise has been built inside the Fergus Falls Clay Busters program, where the local depth has grown into a full pipeline. In spring 2026, the Clay Busters had 23 returning shooters and 13 newcomers, competing in Class 5A, Conference 4 and practicing at the Lakes Area Shooting Center north of Fergus Falls. Their season ran from the last week of March through the last week of May, giving shooters a compact stretch to sharpen skills before the conference pressure mounted.

Piekarski delivered when it mattered. In recent conference competition, she shot a perfect 25-for-25 round and finished 49-for-50, good for first in the conference and 22nd out of 10,490 statewide league shooters. That kind of consistency helped separate her from a large Minnesota field and added to a résumé that already included a fourth-place finish at the MSHSL State Clay Target Tournament at the Minneapolis Gun Club last June.

Her experience has also stretched beyond Minnesota. Piekarski competed at the Scholastic Clay Target Program Nationals at Cardinal Shooting Center in Ohio from July 10-19, 2024, shooting American Trap, American Trap doubles, American Trap handicap at twenty-five yards, Skeet and Skeet doubles. The Scholastic Clay Target Program says it serves student athletes from elementary school through college, and Piekarski’s path now continues at the next level.

Georgia Southern’s clay target team has established itself as a national power, with team titles and an All-Division American Skeet national championship in 2024. For Fergus Falls, Piekarski’s commitment is another example of how a small community can produce high-level talent when local coaches, facilities and competition structure are in place.

The scholarship story in Fergus Falls runs deeper than one athlete. Fergus Falls Area Dollars for Scholars, founded in 1991, awarded five $500 scholarships in 1992. Today, the chapter has grown to 78 named scholarships and has helped 1,595 students receive $1,388,500 in aid, a local tradition that mirrors the same kind of long-term investment now paying off in clay target shooting.