Recent Glacier High School graduate Alana Townsend wants a shot at a spot on the U.S. Olympic shooting team.

Her specialty is the women’s 10-meter air pistol.

“The next step for me is the Olympic trials in 2016,” Townsend said. “It definitely will be more intense. There will be Olympic athletes there that have gold medals or other medals there.”

The 18-year-old U.S.A Shooting Pistol National Junior Team member ranks 10th in the nation.

In April she won second place at the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships held in the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. This was her third year competing in the Junior Olympics. In 2010, she placed second and in 2011 she placed fourth in the 10-meter air-pistol competition. She plans to stay on the junior team until she turns 20.

To reach this caliber of precision shooting takes determination and focus. Townsend said final shoot-offs in competitions such as the Junior Olympics are intense. With competition narrowed to the top eight people and with 70 seconds to fire the first shot, maintaining her cool is the name of the game.

“You have to stay focused. Do what you do at every competition for every shot,” Townsend said. “Once all of us are done the announcer announces each of our scores.”

Each ring on a shooting target ranges from a score of 10, the highest, to 1. While she pays attention to her competitors’ scores, her main focus is shooting her best score.

Townsend shot her personal best in June at the U.S.A Shooting Pistol National Competition in Fort Benning, Ga. Within 40 shots, she scored 381 out of 400 in the single-shot air-pistol competition.

The sport also has taken Townsend to international competitions. In 2011, she traveled to the Czech Republic for the Junior Olympic championships.

It takes a lot of practice to have gotten this far.

When she was just 9, Townsend first learned to shoot the air rifle with Flathead County 4-H Shooting Sports. When she turned 12, Townsend felt she needed more competition, put down the air rifle and took up the air pistol.

When she first shot a Steyr air pistol — the one she still uses today — Townsend met her match.

“I loved it,” Townsend said. At the time, she didn’t have an inkling about the Junior Olympic team or that shooting was an Olympic sport. Over the next six years, she would hone her pistol skills with Flathead County 4-H Shooting Sports coach Timber Stevens.

Once basic techniques are learned, shooters work on building physical strength in the core and upper body for stability and balance. Eventually, the sport becomes a game of the mind, Stevens said.

To prepare mentally, Townsend takes a meditative approach.

“When I get into the competition area, I sit down, relax and close my eyes. I think of other things besides shooting and clear my mind completely,” Townsend said.

Shaking off a low-scoring shot and preparing for the next in a matter of seconds is very challenging.

“If you’re used to shooting nines and tens, then you shoot a seven, it’s hard to overcome. You hurt your score and realize ‘I could have been in first,’” Townsend said.

Stevens said Townsend’s concentration and ability to work well with coaches is what makes her a top competitor.

“As she’s shooting she’s making the decision when to pull the trigger and when to put the pistol down and take a breath. She is consistent,” Stevens said.

While he has had several shooters reach the brink of making the Junior Olympic team, Townsend was the first in his 12 years of coaching.

“It’s enjoyable to see someone work that hard to get to that level,” Stevens said.

Townsend will begin competing at the college level in the fall on a partial scholarship at North Dakota State University, where she is majoring in nursing. She will train under Steve Faught and Eric Pueppke, who both coached her during Junior Olympic competitions.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.