MANITOULIN—The Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps #348 Manitoulin Sea Cadets finished second overall in the season-ending marksmanship competition held recently in Naughton. As part of the team’s excellent showing, one of its members, leading cadet Laszlo Vernarsky has qualified for the next level of competition.
“This was our team’s final competition of the season, and they finished in second place,” said Miranda MacKay, coach of the team and sub-lieutenant of the cadet corps. “There were only 18 points between the first and second place teams. It was super close,” she said, pointing out the difference between the Manitoulin second-place team and the third-place team was about 200 points.
“The cadets have been practicing since October,” said Ms. MacKay. She explained that the cadets compete using Daisy air rifles. The zone competition included a total of seven teams, made up of cadet corps, squadrons and sea cadets, with six teams from Sudbury taking part.
The Manitoulin Sea Cadets team captain was Petty Officer 2nd class Elizabeth Hazlitt, assistant captain Leading Captain Austin Flikweert, Leading Cadet Laszlo Vernarsky, Leading Cadet Elainah Peltier and Master Cadet Liam McLean.
“Leading Cadet Vernarsky finished first in both the junior and open category,” said coach MacKay. The junior division is for those who are under the age of 15 as of May 15 of this year, and the open category is open to all participants.
Leading Cadet Vernarsky, “posted the top shot of the day, scored 85 percent while his top target of the day was 95 percent, which is absolutely incredible.” She noted as well that Leading Cadet Vernarsky is only in this first year as a cadet and has several years to look forward to. He has now qualified to compete as an individual at the upcoming 2024 Regional Marksmanship championship to be conducted at CFB Trenton on April 12-14.
“Our corps competitors’ next best mark in the open category was Leading Cadet Peltier who finished sixth, Petty Officer 2nd class seventh, Leading Cadet Flikweert 13th and Master Cadet McLean 17th. There were a total of 32 competitors taking part.
“I’m so proud of our team, they did so well,” added coach MacKay.
