Katie Jacob's journey from junior competitor to National Champion has been short ... after all, the USA Shooting Women's Skeet National Champion is just 22 years old. She was 16 when she burst onto the scattergun scene in a dramatic underdog win during the 2016 National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships. At the time, our friends at Shooting Sports USA wrote:
Jacob (16, Rochester, MI) entered the second and final day of competition three targets back from 2015 World Championships Junior silver medalist Sydney Carson (North Liberty, IN). She would even finish the Semifinal match in second place to Carson. Once in the gold-medal match, however, Jacob would defeat Carson 14-11 targets to claim the gold medal.
In the writing business, we call that "foreshadowing," but in the world of competitive shooting, nothing is certain. So it was that at this year's USA Shooting Shotgun Nationals, Jacob walked to the firing line only hoping to do her best.
“I was just having fun being there," said Jacob. “It was a great Final with all of us women competitors keeping our scores close throughout. It is always a great honor to shoot with the United States’ top women as they are some of the best the world has to offer.”
Jacob was also looking forward to changing her game up just a bit, choosing to focus on each individual target rather than her competitor’s scores. It paid off. The Krieghoff-sponsored shooter went into the final day of competition with a score of 197/200 and missed just one target in the final round. Her final score of 247/250 won her the National Title ... beating out such living legends as Kim Rhode and Dania Vizzi for the Number One spot. That's one amazing six-year journey, and we can't wait to see what the next six (or 60) bring!
