SPARTA, Ill. — Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

Anthony Armen and his Evans City youth trap teammates took that to the extreme earlier this week at the AIM Grand National Championships in Sparta, Ill.

Armen, Hunter Szymanski, Jack Noftz, Ryan Ball and Eric Busa combined to bring the Junior Division Singles Class A national title home.

They won out over a field of approximately 130 teams despite trailing by eight birds entering the final day of competition.

“We didn’t shoot all that well the first day out there,” Armen said. “We missed 17 birds (out of 500). That wasn’t going to get it done.”

Still, the confidence that led this team to the state championship a week or so earlier never left it.

“We knew as a team we were capable of rallying,” Szymanski said. “We’ve got confidence in each other’s abilities, not just our own.”

Evans City came back out the second day and shot a 491, missing only nine birds. The team’s composite score of 974 beat out the second-place Hoodlum Alley Claybusters of Shelbysville, Tenn., by three birds.

And it was Armen who led the charge.

He graduated from Seneca Valley High School this year and is no longer eligible to compete for the junior team.

The second day of nationals was the final round he could shoot for his team.

Armen wound up shooting his first career 100 — hitting all 100 targets — in Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA) competition during the second round, leading his team’s rally.

“That’s something I thought I was never going to do,” Armen admitted. “Eric, Jack, Hunter ... I’ve watched them all shoot 100. I had never even hit my first 75 targets to get a 75 patch.

“Once I finally got my 75 in a row, the 100 just seemed to happen.”

Syzmanski has shot two 100s in ATA competition and doesn’t downplay Armen’s achievement.

“It’s really tough. I mean, you have to be spot on perfect that day,” Syzmanski said. “And he did it when we needed it the most.”

Syzmanski and Noftz shot 99s that second day, while Busa shot a 98 and Ball a 95.

Ball said the support of his teammates enabled him to hold it together after a rough start.

“I missed three clays from my first station and everybody kept encouraging me,” he said. “I truly felt that. I would have fallen apart if it wasn’t for that encouragement.”

Busa, Noftz and Syzmanski were members of the Evans City youth trap team that won a national title two years ago.

“This team is always good from year to year,” Busa said. “We compete in a youth league for eight weeks and our top five averages from that league form our first team. So we know we’re always going to have good shooters.”

Armen and Ball are the only members of the team who have graduated.

“We have three or four younger kids coming up who are capable of taking those spots,” Busa said. “The club will develop us good shooters.”

Syzmanski credited coaches Tim and Andy Green — with the program since 2008 — and first-year coach Chuck Armen for the ongoing success of the team.

He praised the support of the Evans City Sportsmen Club as well.

“This is an awesome program,” Syzmanski said. “The club helped us with our expenses for nationals by giving us $500. Nobody expected that.”

Ball agreed.

“The Sportsmen Club always backs us up,” Ball said. “They consider us the future of the club and they do what they can to help us succeed.”

Ball is headed to Thiel College this fall while Armen is going to Butler County Community College.

Neither believes he’s done with the sport.

“I’ll still shoot for fun while I’m at school,” Ball said. “Next summer, I may do some tournaments.”

“Between work and school, I won’t have time to shoot for a while,” Armen said. “I’ll get back into it eventually. In the meantime, this is a pretty good way to go out.”

There were 1,286 competitors comprising 257 squads overall at the AIM Grand National Championships.