After claiming the High Junior (Any Sight) title in the CMP 2700 aggregate three years in a row, 18-year-old Tanya Chowdary of Belle Mead, New Jersey took top junior honors in the biggest match of the year, the President’s 100. 
Tanya started shooting when she was nine years old. Though now a national pistol champion, she started out in a junior rifle program, following in her older sister’s footsteps. She shot rifle for three years before switching over to the junior pistol program. It was here she found her passion. “I instantly fell in love with pistols and the dynamics of shooting,” she said.
Everyone has a different reason for competing. Shooting well requires extreme focus, discipline, routine and consistency. These are what draw Tanya to bullseye competition. “I enjoy the person I become when I enter the range and the focus and discipline I employ when I start to shoot. That routine is my favorite thing about marksmanship,” she explained.
She attributes much of her success to thinking with logic, not emotion. “If things aren’t going as you’d planned, whether it be in a match or during practice, take a step back and logically assess where you may be missing something. When emotion comes into play, it clouds our judgement and does not allow for us to see things clearly,” Tanya said. Excluding emotion is imperative to seeing and measuring progress. This is a learned behavior and comes more easily to some than others.
Tanya also doesn’t have a brand preference – she just wants equipment that works well. She does always carry a notebook filled with notes of her routines and practice sessions. Purple glasses (her favorite color) guard her eyes from the sun while she is shooting.
Marksmanship has always been a family affair for the Chowdary family. Tanya explained that her father’s passion for shooting is what afforded her many of the opportunities she has had. He now coaches the New Jersey junior pistol team.
She has claimed a number of awards on this team. Tanya and her teammates have earned the Riding the High Places Junior Team Trophy three years in a row. Three seems to have been a magic, or haunting, number for Tanya— 2024 marked the third year she took the national CMP 2700 Aggregate High Junior (Any Sight) title. She was third woman in the “any sight” category in both 2023 and 2024. In 2022, Tanya placed third in the Junior President’s 100, repeating this placement in 2023. That same year also brought her third in the National Trophy Individual Junior Pistol match and third in the .22 rimfire pistol junior aggregate.
This past summer, Tanya broke her third-place streak, claiming top junior honors in the President’s 100 with a 359-9x out of 400. She and her teammate Justin Kopecky also took high .22 honors in the CMP 2-Man Pistol Team Aggregate, beating a USAR team.
“Marksmanship has taught me a multitude of qualities over the years, perseverance, patience, respect for your competitors, integrity and confidence,” Tanya said. “Through the journey of navigating this sport I was able to sharpen these traits and improve myself as a shooter and, more importantly, as a person.” Tanya cites her three National Junior Championship titles as her greatest accomplishment, though she values each of the 25+ awards she has earned locally, regionally, and nationally.
Shooting isn’t the only sport Tanya has excelled in. She holds over 15 awards in golf and plays Division 2 at Bentley University while pursuing business law and finance. Like many competitive shooters, Tanya is extremely well-rounded. She also enjoys astronomy, singing, running and time with family. Tanya’s performances prove her dedication to whatever she is doing, complete with a mindset that sets her up for success.
