Running and shooting, it's a combination that has been practiced in Big Sky country for a long time.

So, maybe that's why three of the top five athletes at the 2010 U.S. summer biathlon national championships - held Aug. 18-21 in Tukwila, Wash., near Seattle - were from Montana. Or the more likely, it's a result of the athletes' hard work and dedication to a sport that Shaun Marshall-Pryde describes as, "trying to run a sub 5-minute mile and thread the eye of a needle."

After the three-race championship series, Bozeman's Marshall-Pryde was in third, Bozeman's Kevin Jacobsen was fourth and Kalispell's Russell Skelton - who also has family ties to Bozeman - was fifth.

"I thought the big surprise was Kevin," said Marshall-Pryde, a previous national title holder. "Jacobsen did a fabulous job his first two races - raced smart. He was still very fit, raced quickly and hit his targets."

The surprise was due to the fact that it was Jacobsen's first trip to nationals, and in his first season with the sport.

"I took it up in the spring," Jacobsen said. "I went to Marc Sheppard's clinic (in West Yellowstone). I just wanted to get exposed to it, and it just kind of tickled me a little bit, so I got into it. Did a race down there and then did a race up at Bohart Ranch. I did those two biathlons and then decided, ‘you know, why not go out and do nationals and just see, and just check it out."'

Jacobsen finished third in the first race - a sprint - and shot 70 percent.

"(I) ended up shooting pretty well out there and ended up finishing pretty good in two out of the three races at least, and overall," Jacobsen said. "I have the running background, so that piece of the summer biathlon puzzle is kind of taken care of, I can run. I just had to focus on shooting and it just kind of happened."

A veteran of international competition from Eastern Europe to South Korea, Marshall-Pryde relied equally, if not more, on his feet to earn fifth place in the series' first event after knocking down only two targets, or shooting 20 percent.

"Considering it's probably the worst I've ever shot over the span of three races it was frustrating for me, but at the same time, I just kept running and fighting like I could win the next one," Marshall-Pryde said.

Returning from a few years away from the sport, Marshall-Pryde was hoping to "just show up and scare" overall champion Douglas Hoover of Williamsburg, Pa., who was a rising star when Marshall-Pryde was still racing with the U.S. national team.

"But it didn't really effect him too much," Marshall-Pryde said with a laugh. "It didn't affect him at all, actually probably made him better."

The trio of Montanans never landed outside of the top seven in any of the races. Jacobsen earned an additional third place in the pursuit race and was seventh in the more hectic mass start.

Marshall-Pryde followed his sprint result with a second-place finish in the pursuit and a fourth place in the mass start. Skelton was fourth, sixth and second through the series.

"It's such an art of opposites, a balance of opposites. (Nationals) opened my eyes to the training again and what it takes," Marshall-Pryde said. "Bozeman should be proud of its competitors. There's no gimmes around here - in any sport. It pushes everybody around here to do even better, where we can step outside of here and do pretty well elsewhere.

"Anybody in the top seven could have won on any given day."

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