COLUSA, CA (MPG) –Several Northern California youth shooters returned from the 2026 U.S. Open Youth Clay Shooting Nationals in Las Vegas as national champions, scholarship recipients and top finishers, accomplishments longtime shooting instructor Bob Maffei highlighted during a recent presentation to the Colusa Rotary Club.
The July 8 through 11 championships, hosted by the California Youth Shooting Sports Association and the Youth Shooting Sports Federations, drew 376 competitors from across the country to the Clark County Shooting Complex. Shooters competed in skeet, trap and sporting clays across six age divisions.
Maffei, who has coached youth shooters from throughout Northern California for decades, told Rotarians he was grateful to the clubs, coaches and parents who trusted him to help prepare athletes for one of the nation’s premier youth shooting competitions.
“I’d like to thank all the parents that come and the coaches that have come that allowed me to help them with their children and shooting,” Maffei said.
Among the tournament’s top performers was Jacob Masiano of Team Clay Crushers. Masiano won the Young Adult National Championship in skeet with a score of 147 out of 150 before capturing the Young Adult Trap National Championship. He also helped Team Clay Crushers win national squad championships in skeet and trap while the team placed third in sporting clays.
Masiano capped the four-day tournament by earning the Young Adult High Overall National Championship with a combined score of 465 out of 500, one of the sport’s highest honors.
“The biggest thing to do when you’re shooting three different disciplines like trap, skeet and sporting clays is to become high overall in your division,” Maffei said. “That’s very hard to do.”
Maffei recalled watching the trap finals while trying to keep track of several shooters.
“I was watching Jacob break all his targets one after another so perfectly,” Maffei said. “He shot 199 out of 200 trap targets.”
Afterward, Maffei joked with his student.
“I asked him one question: ‘Why’d you miss the last target?'”
Another highlight was Madilyn Masiano, who earned third-place squad honors in Young Adult Sporting Clays before accepting a shooting scholarship to Midland University.
“So one of the highest honors you can possibly get is to be recruited by a university to go shoot for them,” Maffei said. “She got a scholarship, which helps the parents pay for her education, but it also identifies talent as one of the better shooters in the United States.”
Several other Northern California shooters Maffei has worked with also posted strong finishes.
Gage Locatelli of YSA Clay Dogs won Junior Varsity national titles in skeet and sporting clays while helping his team capture the national skeet squad championship. He later claimed the Intermediate Advanced High Overall National Championship with a combined score of 461 out of 500.
Teammate Blake Romiski finished runner-up in both the Junior Varsity Skeet and Sporting Clays divisions before earning Intermediate Advanced High Overall runner-up honors.
Peter Reese of Nor Cal Longshots won the Intermediate Advanced High Overall National Championship with a score of 442 out of 500. Before the tournament, Maffei gave Reese a lesson and quickly realized another championship contender had emerged.
“I said to myself, ‘Now there’s three,'” Maffei said, referring to Reese, Yegor Zhdanock and Lucas Costa.
Zhdanock finished runner-up in Intermediate Advanced Skeet, won the Intermediate Advanced Sporting Clays national championship and earned High Overall runner-up honors.
Costa added several podium finishes, placing runner-up in Intermediate Advanced Trap, fourth in Sporting Clays and third High Overall.
The Young Adult Sporting Clays division featured one of the tournament’s closest contests. Dustin Wurm of Nor Cal Longshots finished runner-up while teammate Austin Engelmann placed third. Together, they helped their squad earn runner-up honors.
Maffei said the race for the Young Adult High Overall championship came down to the tournament’s final 25 trap targets.
Masiano edged Wurm by a single point, 465-464, while Engelmann finished third with 457.
The youngest competitors also found success. Drake Locatelli won the Intermediate Entry National Championship in sporting clays, helped his squad finish runner-up in trap and captured the Intermediate Entry High Overall National Championship with a score of 353 out of 500.
Throughout his presentation, Maffei emphasized that success in competitive shooting depends as much on mental preparation as physical ability.
“I teach trap, skeet and sporting clays, and I emphasize mental training,” he said. “I try to bring a shooter from the start all the way through to teach them how to control their emotions and perform as best they can.”
Maffei said he has worked with youth clubs as well as collegiate shooters representing Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Texas A&M, William Carey University and Arizona State University.
“We know that mechanical skill level is about 10%,” Maffei said. “The rest of it, 90%, is a mental outlook on how you break your targets and how you repeat that task time after time.”
As he concluded his presentation, Maffei shifted the focus from the champions to the people who helped them succeed.
“I’d like to thank all the parents and the coaches that allowed me to help them with their children and shooting,” he said. “To all the competitors who titled at the 2026 Nationals, your performances were outstanding. To all the young shooters that demonstrated excellent potential, keep up the great work. You will be on the leaderboard in the near future.”