Quincy-Area Trapshooters Among Illinois’ Best as Local Teams Lead Fall Standings
QUINCY, Ill. Some of the best high school trapshooters in Illinois are competing right here in the Quincy area, with several local athletes ranking among the state’s top performers and both Quincy Notre Dame and Quincy Senior High School sitting atop their respective conferences during the 2026 fall season.
The Week 4 rankings published by the Illinois State High School USA Clay Target League show Quincy-area athletes making a significant mark in a sport that has quietly become one of the fastest-growing competitive activities for high school students across the country.
Leading the local contingent is Quincy Notre Dame’s Jayce Vonderhaar, who is tied for third in the state’s Fall 2026 Trap Season Average Overall rankings with a 24.5 season average.
In trapshooting, athletes fire at 25 clay targets during each round, making a 24.5 average remarkably close to perfection. USA Clay Target League competition consists of two 25-target rounds for 50 targets during a regular practice or competition event.
Vonderhaar is far from the only Quincy athlete appearing near the top of the Illinois leaderboard.
Quincy Senior High School’s Braxton Cannady ranks No. 12 in the state overall, while QHS teammates Collin Elsie and Kaden Knight are tied for 14th.
That means four Quincy student athletes are represented among the top 15 positions in the statewide season-average standings entering the closing portion of the fall competition schedule.
The individual success is being matched by outstanding team performances.
Quincy Notre Dame holds the No. 1 position in Class 1A Conference 6 with a commanding lead in the conference standings.
Across town, Quincy Senior High School also occupies the top spot in its conference.
QHS is ranked No. 1 in Class 1A Conference 9, holding a sizeable advantage over second-place Parkview Christian Academy. Conference 9 also includes Byron High School, Liberty School and West Prairie Jr./Sr. High School.
The strong performances give Quincy two conference-leading high school programs at the same time and place several local athletes among the elite shooters competing statewide.
And they are doing it in a sport that has experienced extraordinary growth.
Trapshooting may not receive the Friday-night crowds associated with football or the packed gymnasiums of basketball season, but participation in school-based clay target shooting has expanded dramatically during the past two decades.
The USA Clay Target League reported just 30 participants on three teams during the 2007-08 season. By 2024-25, participation had grown to 55,832 athletes competing on 1,972 teams nationwide.
The organization reported another record year in 2025, including 13,200 new athletes, and described it as its 31st consecutive record-breaking season. The league offers trap, skeet, sporting clays and 5-stand competition for secondary and postsecondary students.
That national growth is increasingly visible locally.
Quincy Notre Dame and Quincy Senior High School are among a growing collection of western Illinois schools offering clay target competition. Other participating schools in the region include Brown County, Central, Liberty, Payson-Seymour, Rushville-Industry, Unity, West Central and West Prairie.
Unlike many traditional sports, trapshooting allows athletes with a wide range of physical builds and athletic backgrounds to compete alongside one another. Success comes from consistency, concentration, repetition and the ability to perform the same movement accurately target after target.
A single missed clay can separate athletes near the top of the leaderboard.
That makes the numbers being posted by Quincy-area shooters particularly impressive.
A 24.5 season average means Vonderhaar is averaging just half of a missed target per 25-target round. Cannady, Elsie and Knight have similarly placed themselves among a small group of competitors near the top of a statewide field.
Safety is also built prominently into the league’s structure. The USA Clay Target League describes its priorities as “safety, fun and marksmanship,” in that order, with coaches and range safety personnel overseeing competition.
The Fall 2026 season consists of five competition weeks. Week 4 began Oct. 11, followed by the fifth and final competition week beginning Oct. 18. Final season results are scheduled to be published Oct. 26.
That means the Week 4 standings remain a snapshot rather than the final rankings, with one final round of competition capable of shifting individual and team positions.
Regardless of where the final standings settle, the fall season has already demonstrated the strength of competitive trapshooting in Quincy.
With Quincy Notre Dame and Quincy Senior High School both leading their conferences and four local athletes occupying positions among the state’s top 15 overall averages, Quincy-area student athletes are not simply participating in one of America’s growing high school sports.
They are becoming some of the best in Illinois.
