Cheliras takes aim for OSU

Imagine this:

You are shooting a smallbore .22 caliber rifle at a target 50 feet away, whose bullseye is only a small dot about 1/32nd of an inch in diameter (0.76 mm exactly) in the middle of the center circle.

How many times do you think you could hit that small dot?

Well, if you can hit it 51 times out of 60 shots (20 each in prone, standing and kneeling positions), than you are as much of a super-sharpshooter as Gina Cheliras, a freshman on the Ohio State rifle team from Hubbard High.

Cheliras did exactly that in Ohio State’s recent home opener of the season against Akron, and in the process set a school record for the highest score ever recorded in an OSU smallbore competition using the new target adopted by he National Rifle Association in 2006.

She hit the 10-point bullseye dot 51 times, while her other nine shots hit the nine-point center circle surrounding the bullseye dot, to give her a record-breaking 591 score that also is a rarity in NCAA intercollegiate rifle competition.

By comparison, in last year’s NCAA smallbore finals, the top score was a 588 by Chris Abalo of Army.

For shooting 591, Cheliras won the Top Gun Award while also helping Ohio State’s four-person teams to set two school records for small bore (2,300 points) and air rifle (2,325) for a winning 4,625 score to the Zips’ 4,565.

So, how did a freshman achieve the highest score ever recorded at Ohio State for both men and women, and when did her talent emerge, how was it developed and what does it bode for the future?

Parents got her started shooting at Vienna club

“My parents [David and Katherine Cheliras] got me started. My dad hunts. They both have shot in competitons, like turkey shoots,” said Cheliras. “I began shooting when I was 5 or 6 and later joined the Vienna Fish and Game Club and the Vienna Cougar junior rifle team when I was 10.”

Cheliras discovered that she loved to shoot and also was good at it, and so stayed with her new-found sport.

“Then when I got better, I went to shoot for the Ashland Eagles Junior Rifle Club when I was 15,” added Cheliras, noting that the Eagles used the University of Akron rifle team’s range.

Word of her ability got around the state, and she was recruited by Ohio State coach Patrick Cherry, and given a partial scholarship on the rifle team to continue in the sport she loves.

“I played a lot of different sports at school and even when I was younger, but shooting is just a natural talent for me and seems like something that can benefit me my whole life,” said Cheliras. “I got an awesome scholarship to come to a great school. It is a year-round around sport and I like my teammates and coaches and we are like family.”

Says it is possible to improve her 591 score

Cheliras, whose previous best score was 590, said that it will be difficult to improve on her 591, but that it is possible.

“I am trying to figure out how to improve that score. But for most people, that is a pretty unattainable score,” she said. “I have a lot of God-given talent. Taking more or less practice has no effect on my shooting. It is how I am thinking when I shoot, my thinking process.”

Cheliras also loves to teach and help some of the other young shooters on the team. In fact, although she hears from others that she could be a very strong candidate to make the U.S. Olympic team after college, she is not too interested in that but instead is leaning toward coaching.

Cherry believes Cheliras has a bright future.

“She reminds me of the records of another Ohio State Rifle Alumni from Northeast Ohio, George Martian of East Liverpool, who in 1950 was the sport’s first four-year All-American, and went on to be vice president of Remington Arms Co. and is in the OSU Hall of Fame,” recalled Cherry.

X John Kovach covers colleges for The Vindicator. Write to him at kovach@vindy.com.