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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Junior Takes Aim at Success

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
      Katie Fuller is a straight shooter.
    The Manzano High junior-to-be, who began her marksmanship career as a BB gun-toting 5-year-old, has bagged deer, elk and antelope with a .50-caliber Knight Wolverine muzzle loader with open sights. The 17-year-old Sedillo-area resident also killed an oryx with a .338 Winchester Magnum in an off-range hunt near White Sands.
    “She started out — we have a cabin up north — shooting a BB gun when she wasn't even big enough to cock it….,” said her father, Thad Fuller. “Last year, she got her bull elk with a muzzle loader down in the Gila.”
    But Katie Fuller's real claim to fame as a 21st Century Annie Oakley is her skill with a less lethal Anschütz 8002 precision air rifle — at $3,000, it has all the bells and whistles and looks like a futuristic Stormtrooper laser weapon — that fires a pellet with a velocity of 560 feet per second. The 5-foot-4 Navy Junior ROTC cadet ensign has set national Civilian Marksmanship Program records, and she's the captain of the Monarchs' competitive air-rifle squad.
    Fuller's coach is proud of his pupil's progress.
    “I think it's her dedication (to the sport),” retired Marine Lt. Col. Zack Forester said. “And part of it, I think, is there's some acknowledgement that an adult might just know what they're talking about. And as team captain, we needed someone to step into the breech and make the hard decisions.”
    Fuller and her teammate, Kirsten Moyer, reply to Forester's guidance with a respectful “yes, sir” as the coach eyeballs their shots on paper targets through binoculars during a recent team practice at their on-campus 10-meter indoor range.
    “She was my inspiration when I first started,” said Moyer, a rising sophomore and a cadet petty officer third class. “She's always been the one to beat….”
    Fuller's team established a CMP 3-position national record with a cumulative score of 1,116 — out of a possible 1,200 — in October 2007. Fuller's two individual national standards included a score of 292, out of 300, and a 389.1 plus-10 finals record shot in February.
    Fuller was also pleased with her American Legion Postal competition performance in March.
    “I shot a 587 (out of a possible 600),” said Fuller, who explained that the term “postal” refers to the mailing of targets from shooters nationwide to the official scorers. “I didn't get really excited until after we mailed it in. They can plug the holes and scan the target. We had just sighted it. It was a 584, but after they scanned it, it was a 587.”
    Fuller's goals include the pursuit of a shooting scholarship to the U.S. Naval Academy. The National Rifle Association distinguished expert and New Mexico Activities Association all-state shootist dreams of earning a commission as a Navy officer and possibly a degree in forensic science.
    Asked if she has visions of doing something like the TV show “CSI,” she quickly responded, “More like 'NCIS.'”
    Fuller's grandfathers, Marvin Bonarden and Joe L. Fuller, were Korean War veterans.
    “I want to continue the tradition,” she said. “And I want to serve my country.”
    Fuller and Moyer will travel to Anniston, Ala., to compete in the USA Shooting National Junior Olympic Championships on Friday and Saturday. Fuller also hopes to compete at the Games of the West in the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs on July 27.
    “She's always been focused…,” said her mother, Connie Fuller. “She's always wanted to do her best, and I've always been amazed at how intent she is.”
    Katie Fuller has a 26-year-old half-sister, Felicity Spencer, who lives in Rhode Island.
    “I don't see her very often, but I know she's proud of me,” Fuller said.
    Her uncle, Joe B. Fuller, also has been instrumental in furthering his niece's love of hunting.
    Katie Fuller knows there is still work to be done.
    “Just with my position, my balance and point of aim,” she said. “And sometimes the concentration, it takes the fun out of the competition. But it's my life. It helps you to concentrate in school, too.”
   

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