Dylan Wood was seven years old the first time he shot competitively in a tournament. Everett Fowler was 11. Today, the two Clemson seniors are leaders of the University’s shotgun team — an organization comprised of approximately 30-35 students each semester. Both were attracted to Clemson in large part because of the opportunity to compete with the shotgun team.
“I’m a big outdoors guy who enjoys hunting, fishing and shooting competitively, and I’ve loved every minute of my Clemson experience,” says Wood, a mechanical engineering major. Wood grew up in Edgemoor, South Carolina, a small community located about an hour south of Charlotte along I-77. He credits his father for his initial interest in recreational shooting.
Like Wood, Fowler’s father also played a pivotal role in his curiosity. He asked to go out shooting with him one day … and the rest is history.
“I started competing in sixth grade,” says Fowler, an industrial engineering major from Lexington, South Carolina. “I picked it up pretty quickly and had some success at a young age. College is where my passion for shooting took off, and I have worked very hard the past four years to get where I am now.”
Fowler presides over Clemson’s shotgun team after serving as the club’s treasurer as a junior. Earlier this year, he led the organization to a standout performance at the 2025 Collegiate Clay Target Championships in San Antonio, Texas.
Clemson placed sixth overall in Division I with a total of 2,751 points. Its best event was skeet shooting, where freshman Jakob Duke compiled a perfect score and finished second in a shoot-off. In all, 14 students placed in the top five scoring column of the six different events to contribute to the team’s overall score. Wood and senior Kaeleigh Seigler were the team’s top cumulative scorers in the overall men’s and women’s competition, respectively.
The team showcased its collective strength in the Make-a-Break championship, where Clemson knocked off Angelo State University and Fort Hays State University without losing a single round to claim the national championship trophy. Make-a-Break gives teams an opportunity to challenge themselves by shooting targets at varying degrees of difficulty.
“We had a good team behind us, and everyone was rooting us on,” says Wood — who along with Fowler — was joined on the winning team by Will Cirrito, Jefrey Stone and Will Stone.
The team practices near the Outdoor Lab in the Fants Grove area of the Clemson Experimental Forest. It travels up to 25 students for each competition, which ranges from Florida to Ohio — and many places in between. It all culminates at Nationals each spring.
Fowler serves as an intern with the team’s coach, faculty advisor Richard Willey from the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation. He says the shotgun team has forged lifelong friendships through shared interests.
“This has been the first time I was able to connect with people who had similar interests I was so passionate about,” Fowler says. “Shooting is very individual in nature outside of college. That’s why I enjoy Clemson and it’s more special to me, because we have that team aspect.”
Wood agrees and says the team’s expansion beyond the geographical footprint of the Southeast has paid dividends, citing teammates who bring different shooting backgrounds from places such as Maryland and Ohio.
“I went to a relatively small high school growing up, so the shotgun team has been a family,” he says. “It’s helped me get involved and made my time at Clemson easier because I found a connection and a community.”