The 2004 Area 3 Championship took place on August 6th-8th in Columbia, MO. There were a total of 232 shooters, with over 20 Grand Masters (GM's). I haven't shot the Area 3 in nearly 10 years so I couldn't wait to shoot it. Not to mention this was the 2nd Open World Shoot selection match of the year and all of the best Open guys were ready to claim the 100%. When I looked at the squadding list I quickly realized that this Area match had evolved into a mini National Championship for the Open division. Literally, all of the top guys who are competing today were at this match, such as JJ Racaza, JoJo Vidanes, KC Eusebio, Adam Popplewell, Chris Tilley, and Jamie Craig. This was the biggest match of the year for the Open division and I was ready!

The match consisted of 11 stages and was to be shot in a one day format. I had to shoot the match on Friday due to a previous engagement in New Orleans on Saturday. Travis and I showed up on the range early to look over the stages. We both kind of looked at each other and thought this was going to be a very tough match. The stages were different than we usually see at some of the other matches. We decided there was nothing we could do but take it one stage at a time. Emanuel Bragg and the guys in Columbia did a great job setting up some very challenging stages. I bet it was almost too challenging for some of the shooters. Maybe they will look at that and revise the stages for next year. I love the challenge but most of the USPSA shooters like to have fun and fun is not walking off the range with multiple penalties.

I spoke with my good friend Adam Popplewell a few weeks before the match and we decided that we were going to squad together. He is a great guy and an amazing shooter. If you haven't seen Adam blaze through a course yet, then you're missing out! Chris Tilley also shot the match on Friday but was not in the squad with myself and Adam. At the end of the day I was on top of Chris, Adam and Jamie but JJ, JoJo, and KC still had to shoot on Saturday. As I was on my late flight to New Orleans I thought, well, I shot a pretty good match but my score is definitely beatable. I had one penalty and a few slow times. With the level of competition at this match, there was not much room for error. In the end my score did hold and I won my 5th straight Area match of the year while adding another 100% to my World Shoot selection total. The results are as follows:

Results Open:

1. Max Michel 100%
2. JJ Racaza 96.56%
3. JoJo Vidanes 93.38%
4. Adam Popplewell 92.62%
5. Chris Tilley 89.68%

In the Limited division my teammate Travis Tomasie took home another Area match! That is back to back Areas that Travis and I have won both divisions. He was not very pleased with his performance during the match but I kept telling him to keep his head up. It was a very tough match, especially for Limited. He continued to fight and crushed the competition by nearly 15%! That is an amazing accomplishment for Travis as he shows that he is ready to take on the title as the 2004 Limited National Champion. Keep it up T and we'll take the double division win where it counts most, the US Handgun Nationals!

The match was excellent. We had a great time picking through the stages and deciding the best ways to approach them. The stages were very tough and I appreciate that aspect of the sport. Emanuel worked his butt off as usual. That guy does some sort of staff job at almost every match he participates in and produces phenomenal scores! Great job Emanuel, and thank your staff for a great time!

Until next time,
Max Michel, Jr.