A lack of snow didn’t stop these sharp shooters from enjoying the end of their season.

On Sunday, biathletes took part in the Slushless Cup – normally the Slush Cup. In previous years the event has been held at the end of racing season in April, but this season the snow disappeared too fast and left a lake in its wake.

Chief of race Nick Marnik recalls six inches of water in the range.

“It just went snap,” he said of the change in weather.

The water made it not quite impossible to use, but rather unpleasant, especially for athletes who might shoot prone (from their stomach). So race organizers decided to let the range dry out and the Slushless Cup was born.

The Slushless Cup is a fun race where scores don’t count for much more than bragging rights. It’s also a social event to celebrate the end of the season and to transition into dryland training season.

Athletes paired up and raced against the clock. Run a lap of the range, shoot a clip (five shots), run a lap, shoot a clip and so on. Under the beating sun, some athletes also chose to cool off with a bucket of water at the end of the range.

At the end of both timed rounds, teams, whose creative names ranged from the Dukes of Hazard, to the Black-Eyed Peas, tallied up their scores and those with the most points won.

It was a delicate balance of wanting to shoot and run fast to get more chances to score points and to move slowly and methodically to lower your heart rate and improve your chances of shooting clean.

Athletes enjoyed the fun race as a way to unwind with the rest of their team.

“We all look ridiculous. You all accept it,” said Emma Marnik, who’s been doing biathlon for six years. “You work the race wearing sparkles. You’re not wearing a race suit.”

Maria Peters, who raced on the 2Kewl4Skewl team said, “There’s no pressure. You’re just having fun with the rest of your team.”

Some new potential biathletes also had a chance to try out the sport for the first time, shooting the 22-cal. rifles on wooden rests.

This year the Black Eyed Peas team of Bronwyn Goodwin and Micah Hildes will have ultimate bragging rights as the winners of the inaugural Slushless Cup.

Coming in second was the team, 2Kewl4Skool of Peters and Bruce Wilson. In third was Dukes of Hazard (Liam Adel and Anna Jacobsen.)­­