It is the second successive year Hawker will captain the team after leading the Victorian women to victory at the national championships in Perth at the start of this year.

After qualifying as the top woman at the Victorian Clay Target Association State Trap Carnival last month, Hawker said she was offered a tough choice.

"I was lucky enough to win a title on the Sunday and had a choice of going in the open team which is the top 15 from Victoria or going in the women's team," she said.

"You've got to make your mind up straight away so they can get the final going so after a quick discussion with my husband we decided I would stick with ladies because I was quite well in front of the other ladies.

"I shot well in the final and ended up being number one again and was lucky enough to regain the captaincy for the nationals in Wagga Wagga next year."

Hawker said the Wimmera would be well represented at the national championships.

Horsham's Craig Baker will captain the Victorian open side at the

championships and Thomas Pilgrim from Ararat will captain the juniors.

In addition, David Flavel of Jeparit will captain the veterans' team.

Hawker said it was an extraordinary effort for the Wimmera to produce four Victorian captains in one year.

She said she was fulfilling a dream of captaining the Victorian women's team for two consecutive years.

"I was happy for Craig because I knew how much he wanted it, but I thought 'oh my gosh, I could be in the open team as one of the top 15'," she said. "That's one of my dreams is to shoot with the men but they have the top 15 and then they shoot down to the top five so it's one of those things where you don't know what will happen.

"Because I was so far in front with the women's and to captain the women back-to-back was another goal, I chose women's again."

Hawker, Baker, Pilgrim and Flavel are not the only Wimmera shooters to excel recently.

Natimuk's Alethea Sedgman returned to international competition with a silver medal at the Oceania Continental Championship in Sydney.

Sedgman finished second in the women's 3P rifle behind New Zealand competitor Jenna Mackenzie.