Vanessa Levitan points her gun in the air, ready to shoot. A “bird” flies out of a concrete block that stands next to her, and she aims carefully at it.

Sophomore Vanessa Levitan started trap shooting at the age of fourteen, when she was a freshman.

“I grew up hunting, and my dad got me into it,” she said.

Levitan has been to a couple competitions, including a south St. Paul tournament to raise money for the team, and state in Alexandria last year.

Levitan recently joined the trap shooting team and is already ranked in the top 15 in Minnesota. In one season alone Levitan improved from getting twos all the time to scoring twenty threes.

A round is a box of shells, and it is made up of twenty five ‘birds’, and the shooter tries to shoot as many of them as they can.

“I’ve always enjoyed it. I also like the challenge it brings, every week is different and every ‘bird’ you get is different,” Levitan said.

Along with trapshooting, Levitan also enjoys bowling. She has been bowling since she was four and it’s a big part of her life, according to Levitan.

In her free time, Levitan enjoys hanging out with friends, and spending time with her family.