ABOVE: Ethan Madsen poses with his hardware after placing first place in the 2025 Minnesota Trap Shooting Championships on June 20. Photo courtesy of Heather Madsen.

FAIRMONT – On June 20, Fairmont senior Ethan Madsen was trying to do something he had only dreamed of achieving while competing for the high school trap shooting team: win a Minnesota State High School Clay Target League state championship.

With his coaching staff and teammates around him, Madsen did just that.

He took home the individual state title by shooting a perfect 100 for 100 targets, something that hadn’t been done during his seven-year career on the team.

The feat of going perfect in competition was quite a shock for even Madsen himself. But the success he found at state was simply an accumulation of what he had done ever since he picked up a gun.

Madsen was already juggling soccer and baseball as his other sports in sixth grade, but he stumbled across the sport of trap shooting back in the spring of 2019.

His father, Ben, had a huge influence on his passion for shooting. Being a fan of the trade, specifically handguns, it was no surprise that Madsen grew up playing with BB and airsoft guns throughout his childhood.

These factors drew him into the program initially, but the success he found in Year 1 turned this hobby into a passion.

“I kinda just did it to have fun, something to do,” Madsen said. “My first year, I got first place in my grade. That was when I said this was going to be the thing I should do. We tried this out for the heck of it. If I didn’t like it the first year, then maybe I shouldn’t do it. But I liked it, so I stuck with it.”

The skill level only increased from here over the next couple of years. Entering high school, Madsen caught the eye of long-tenured coach Rich Wolf, who had been a part of the program for over the past 10 seasons.

“Probably his freshman or sophomore year is when he really came alive,” Wolf said. “There, he decided he was going to work at it a little harder.”

Just like any other athlete, the journey to the top wasn’t a straight arrow, but a rollercoaster filled with ups and downs. For Madsen, it was his sophomore season that brought him the most adversity.

Madsen said a lot of the struggles came in the mental side of the sport. After stringing together a handful of productive years, expectations rose drastically, causing him to put more pressure on himself during competitions.

It wasn’t until the next summer that Madsen was able to shake off the confidence block. Going back to the basics, he trained religiously every weekend with his father and other teammates. This proved to himself that he had what it took to climb to the next level of trap shooting.

“I had to work for it, Ethan said. “There was a lot of practice the seasons before. Me and dad shot the summer of my 10th grade year a lot. Every Saturday and Sunday in East Chain and Fairmont, we shot a lot to get more practice.”

With his high school chapter closed, Madsen intends to continue his passion for trap shooting. He plans to participate in the Amateur Trapshooting Association, a governing body for the sport that hosts tournaments all around the country.

“Everyone goes through a time in their life, young, where they are not sure what they want to do,” Wolf said. “They have success early, and all of a sudden, they kind of plateau. If they don’t keep that success, things get out of whack. I was glad to see him step back and come back.”