Folsom SWAT places third in state competition

Although more difficult than the shooting contest lost by Dirty Harry Callahan to the evil motorcycle cop, a SWAT competition course has yielded to intensified training by Folsom Police Department officers.Folsom jumped from 17th place last year to finish third Sept. 19 in the statewide "Best in the West" competition for special-weapons-and-tactics squads."Statewide plus Reno PD," said Lt. Perry Albers, unit commander.Some 167 officers from 27 agencies competed for two days at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department shooting range near San Jose. One unit traveled from Manhattan Beach in southern Los Angeles County."Every time, you learn from other agencies, and you learn from mistakes," Albers said. "You adjust your training accordingly. (During the past year) we had emphasis on shooting while running, and our targets are smaller."Along with team leader Sgt. Mark Schanrock, heavily armed officers Evan Fardanesh, Warner Herndon, Jon Kracher, Serge Litvinov, John Triplett and John Wagner had to storm a "shoothouse" structure, burst into rooms blind, discern in split seconds who was friend and who was foe and trigger only the called-for cartridges."It's a good-sized building, old-log-cabin style, corridors, rooms – probably around 4,000," Albers said. "You have friendly and non-friendly targets, for example, somebody may be holding a camera (not a weapon)." On the timed sniper course, as well, caution is at a premium, Schanrock said."We went over two walls, to get your heart rate up, but we didn't take off charging to the places we'd shoot," he said.Triplett did well, despite being nervous."Just before the first event, I was nervous because I had never competed in an event this large," Triplett said. "Once I completed the first event, most of my nerves went away. After the completion of the event, I was proud to hear that our team finished third."The Telegraph's Roger Phelps can be reached at rogerp@goldcountrymedia.com.