Right now, she’s a part-time student at DeSales University in Center Valley awaiting word on admission to the school’s prestigious physicians’ assistant program.
But next August, Morgan Craft, a Hughesville, Sullivan County native living in Doylestown while enrolled at DeSales, will have the eyes of a nation fixed on her as her eyes fix on clay birds.
The 22-year-old Craft will compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Craft became one of the first U.S. athletes to earn a U.S. spot in the Race to Rio after winning the world championship in International Skeet at the ISSF World Championships in Lonato, Italy, on Sept. 9-18.
What makes it even better is that she uses a shotgun a 12-gauge K80 Krieghoff, whose North American headquarters is in Ottsville.
She did not qualify for Rio just because she won the world title, however. As is the case in many other sports, Craft earned her Olympic berth based on a points system from World Cup and World Championship competitions.
Not bad for a young lady who placed last in her very first international shoot back in 2008.
“The way our sport works,” Craft said, “is that our national championships is open to everyone, so it was international. I took last place. I think I took last in my first couple of competitions, and at that time, there were only eight to 12 women competing.”
In skeet, there is a high house and a low house, with eight stations positioned around a half circle that give the shooter a variety of angles at the clay bird targets, and you shoot singles and pairs from each station.
The first two stations are fairly straightforward, but the angles become increasingly difficult and longer at the rest of the stations. And unlike some other shotgun disciplines, you can’t have the gun shouldered when you yell “Pull” for the target to launch.
“For your starting position, basically the butt of your stock can’t be above a line position at the tip of your elbow,” Craft said. “That usually falls around your bellybutton. And when you call ‘Pull,’ you can’t mount. You only mount to your shoulder when the bird becomes visible after it’s launched.
“In International Skeet, when you call ‘Pull,’ the bird doesn’t come out instantly. There could be a delay, and the launch can be instantly or up to three seconds before it comes out.”
For seven long years, Craft, an avid archery hunter, has homed in on International Skeet. After finishing last in her first-ever competition, she knew she needed to improve with more effective practice.
Her grandparents and father helped build a skeet field behind their house in the summer of 2009 and she dedicated herself to it, attending Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Mo., because it had the top college shotgunning team in the nation.
The college shotgun division has five different events for an all-around, and everyone shoots all-around, but Craft focused on skeet and competed in the other events with very little practice time dedicated to them.
“They were fun to me,” she said, “but none of the other events really struck my interest. I think skeet is more challenging. The No. 1 reason is that you’re not allowed to start with the gun at your shoulder. Most Americans don’t shoot International Skeet.
Shooting International Skeet has taken Craft all over the world, to London, Cyprus and beyond. She shot at the test event for the 2012 Olympic venue in London.
This year, she competed at World Cups in Acapulco, Mexico; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Larnaka, Cyprus; and Gabala, Azerbaijan. She took sixth, seventh, third and fourth, respectively in those events, reaching the podium in Cyprus before rising to the top step at worlds, defeating U.S. teammate Caitlin Connor, who also shoots for Krieghoff.
Because she comes from Sullivan County, just north of Williamsport and northwest of Wilkes-Barre, Morgan loves to hunt, but the majority of her time pursuing that passion is in archery deer season. She and her boyfriend, a Minnesota native she met at college, haven’t found anywhere in the area to hunt, so she’ll be heading back home for Saturday’s statewide archery deer season opener. She also likes to hunt pheasants.
While she hasn’t gotten accepted into the DeSales P.A. program yet, it would not be in conflict with her Olympic berth. The opening ceremonies for the 2016 Olympics are scheduled for Aug. 6, and her skeet competition is just one day, Aug. 12. The competition includes three rounds at a total of 75 targets.
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