Lexie Thompson is entering her senior year at Mountain Crest and is coming of a national championship shot gun shooting competition.
LOGAN – One could picture Lexie Thompson in high heels, wearing a formal gown with a sash that has Miss UTYESS embroidered across it. While other girls might show their dancing, singing, and instrument skill Thompson would bring her German made Krieghoff 12 gauge Over/Under shotgun and yell “Pull” and scatter clay pigeons all over the audience from the back to the front of the hall.
UTYESS stands for Utah Youth Education Shotgun Sports, of which Lexie is a member. The Cache Valley branch has 20 members. They compete against bigger schools in the state which have an average of 60 members.
“I like my Krieghoff,” she said. “I used to have an Italian shotgun, but this one has good balance so I can swing it really nice.”
She said she wasn’t naturally good at shooting.
“It has taken me a minute to get where I am,” she added. “I’ve been doing it for seven years and worked hard to get where I am.”
She likes to talk a big show with guys on the range.
“They don’t believe me. I’m a girl, they tell me it’s a guy’s sport,” Lexie said. “Then I destroy them, and they don’t want to shoot with me anymore. I relish beating them.”
The blond haired, blue-eyed clay pigeon destroyer is also a member of the Cache Valley Crushers of the USA Youth Education in Shooting Sports.
The national competition was held in San Antonio at the National Shooting Complex the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Father’s Day weekend.
Going into her senior year at Mountain Crest she plans to continue her competition shooting. She is a four-year state champion in shotgun shooting, she took Regionals two years in a row and this year she was a National Champion.
“Lexie has been the state team captain for two years,” her mother Tiffany Thompson said. “She also lettered in trap shooting while attending Bear River High School and this past year at Mountain Crest she lettered in Sporting Clays.”
This may be her final year of competitive shooting unless she finds a college with a shooting team that she wants to attend. She has three universities offering her scholarships, but they are further away than she wants to go to school.
“Lexie has a drawer full of ribbons, medals, belt buckles and dozens of trophies; some of them are pretty good sized,” Tiffany Thompson said. “She has been shooting since she was 13 years-old. She won a bronze at the Junior Olympics.”
Her grandfather is JR Nostrom, the part-time manager at the Cache Valley Public Shooting Range over the shotgun area and head coach for the Cache Valley team. He prepares the team for tournaments.
“Most of the 20 team members attend Mountain Crest High School, but they do have team members attending Bear River, Logan and Sky View High Schools,” her mother said. “Her grandfather JR Nostrom is the coach.”
Norstrom said Lexie attracts a lot of boys to the shooting range.
“They come to shoot with her and she beats them pretty bad,” Norstrom said.
The Thompsons moved from Garland to Mendon last year so Lexie had to change schools. Her mother said, “she loves Mountain Crest High School, has a 3.8 GPA and is just a good all-round kid.”
The team is looking for more shooters.