One of the top female competitive shooters in the country, Sarah Irish aims to have fun.

“IT’S LIKE a Pez dispenser,” photographer Samantha McGranahan laughs as Sarah Irish pulls bullets from a repurposed mayonnaise container and loads them into a magazine for her custom-built 9mm STI pistol. Sam and I have met Sarah at the Riley Conservation Club on this spring morning to shoot photos for the article I’m writing about the pistol packing prodigy. We wanted to get some shots of Sarah practicing, but the problem was that that Rose-Hulman freshman, who also just happens to be one of the top female competitive shooters in the country, really doesn’t practice.

“Honestly, I don’t practice very much,” Sarah admits, “I practice by going to competitions.” Shooting matches held at Riley and other smaller contests provide her practice to prepare for bigger competitions like the Women’s Open at the 2010 U.S. Practical Shooting Association's Area 5 Handgun Championship.

Sarah won that contest, which includes the best shooters from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin. She placed third overall in the junior category at the 2010 Steel Nationals. Not bad for someone who began shooting competitively in 2005 at the age of 12.

The chemical engineering major from Dearborn, Michigan says that when she first came to Rose-Hulman, she didn’t tell anybody about her shooting career, because she didn’t know what kind of reaction she’d get. It was only after she had to arrange to miss classes in order to attend the 2010 USPSA Nationals in Las Vegas last fall that Sarah came out of the gun safe, so to speak, about her shooting career. Freshman at Rose don’t normally blow off their classes to go to Vegas, after all, so she had to tell her classmates why she was leaving.

Now, Sarah is somewhat of a celebrity on campus, particularly after her story appeared in the Tribune-Star. “People on my floor call me ‘Lethal Weapon’. I get a lot of jokes about it,” she says adding, “It’s kind of cool to be known for something other than academics.”

It wasn’t long before Sarah was recruited for Rose-Hulman’s rifle team. She also plays lacrosse for the college. But she’s not always a welcome face at some campus activities, like the student organized games of Humans vs. Zombies. The game, popular on college campuses, pits a group of “humans” who are armed with weapons like Nerf guns, against a few “zombies“ whose mission is to tag the humans, thus converting them to zombies. Sarah says that the first time she showed up to play, the zombies were less than thrilled. “I walked in and they said, ‘Oh crap, Sarah’s here!’” she laughs.

When asked a zombie-related question about the game, it becomes clear that her deadly accuracy with a foam dart gun has kept her from being counted among the undead. “I don’t know because I never became a zombie when I played,” she admits. But just in case keeping zombies at bay doesn’t provide enough campus-based target practice, “There’s a paintball club here at Rose--I think I’m gonna show up some day and see what happens,” she says with a grin. Petite and athletic, Sarah looks well younger than her 18 years. “I still get offered kids menus on occasion,” she says. Looking younger, and being a girl means that she’s sometimes been underestimated at the shooting range by men who don’t know her. Though most guys treat her like any other shooter, she’s occasionally run into one who doesn’t. “I find it kind of hilarious,” the soft-spoken student says of the instances when she’s bruised the ego of an arrogant male competitor.

One such incident a few years ago involved a “cocky SWAT cop” whom she found herself pitted against at the end of the competition. At the time, Sarah stood only about 4 feet 9 inches tall and weighed a whopping 80 pounds or so. In the head to head shoot out, she buried him. “He did not take it well,” she notes with a chuckle.

These days she most often wears her competition jersey which is emblazoned with her name as well as sponsors like Nevco Targets and Tactical Solutions, so other shooters known what they’re up against. Even though Sarah is very good at what she does, you won’t find her taking it too seriously. “For each part of the competition you have to figure out the fastest way to do it,” she explains. “I’m really laid back when it comes to competitions. I’m there to have fun.”

Sarah traveled to Pueblo, Colorado over Memorial Day weekend to compete in the Rocky Mountain Steel Challenge, where she placed as the high lady in the open rimfire category, and 2nd overall. In July, she’ll be back in her home state of Michigan to compete in the ICORE Central States Regional Revolver Championship. In last year’s competition, which drew shooters from as far away as California, Florida, Louisiana, and New York, Sarah placed 2nd lady.

“I like traveling so it’s cool that I can see a lot of the country through the shooting thing,” she says. But she also notes that she has really enjoyed her first year on campus at Rose-Hulman. “In high school I was super ridiculously quiet. When I came to Rose I opened up a lot,” she says, adding, “I love it here, it’s awesome.”