Cadets finish strong at Small Arms Championship

Six University of North Georgia (UNG) cadets placed in the top 10 among their fellow ROTC cadets at the Army Small Arms Championship, a weeklong competition at Fort Moore in Colombus, Georgia, in March. 

The competition had nearly 250 competitors, with only 27 of them being cadets as the event is open to active Army, Army Reserve, Army or Air National Guard, military academy, college ROTC cadets, and Officer Candidate School candidates. 

For a week, cadets and soldiers competed in multiple matches every day. These matches covered various disciplines from long-range rifles to bull's-eye pistols and action multi-guns. 

Cadet David Blackwell, a freshman pursuing a degree in computer science, earned first place, and Cadet William Lucien Buettner placed third in the competition.  

Originally from Marietta, Georgia, Blackwell was thrilled by the results because of the work he put in leading up to the event. 

"This win was important to me because I was happy to see all of my training pay off and to represent my school and myself positively," Blackwell said. "I learned that I could persevere through pressure, and I'm grateful to have an awesome group of friends on the team. In the future, I plan to continue to pursue the sport of shooting competitively." 

Buettner, a junior pursuing a degree in kinesiology, went into the competition hoping to improve from his previous year’s performance.  

"Placing third was important to me because it displayed the improvement I had since competing last year," Buettner said. "This competition further encourages me to push myself further into the competition shooting world and the Army." 

 A Brentwood, Tennessee, native, Buettner is the first sergeant of UNG's combat action shooting team. 

The team was coached by combat shooting team coach Jason Wistoski, who shared he couldn't be more pleased with the results. 

"I'm proud of the whole team," Wistoski said. "Especially David and Lucien. There were a lot of lessons learned for future competitions. More importantly, the experience and training gained for these future Army officers increase their ability to be lethal on future battlefields."