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NCAA Rifl e Championships Preview


BY KEVIN NEUENDORF MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR


Mountaineers Poised for More March Magic; Nanooks Hope to Spoil with Home-Range Advantage


March is upon us and


that means just one thing in the shooting world — NCAA Rifl e Championships and another chance for West Virginia University (WVU) to once again reassert itself as the dominant collegiate rifl e program in the land. Boasting proudly of their


The two teams met as


recently as January 31 and February 1, with the team splitting a pair of matches and separated by just two points during the duel. West Virginia earned a three-point victory in the fi rst match while Alaska pulled out a one-point win to break a


fornia) and Ryan Anderson (Wasilla, Alaska) as well as National Junior Team mem- bers Tim Sherry (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) and Lo- relie Stanfi eld (Fairbanks, Alaska).


Similarly, six of the top-


17 smallbore scores (587 or greater) feature athletes


top smallbore scores. TCU along with Jacksonville State are the only two programs besides West Virginia and Alaska to have registered team scores above 4,690. Individually, the NCAA Ri-


fl e Championships will pro- vide great intrigue and com- pelling competition. Miles perfected the air rifl e on February 7 during the Patriot


Last season’s NCAA Air Rifl e National Champion Connor Davis of Kentucky currently holds the top individual smallbore score (592) during the NCAA Rifl e season.


16 championship titles, this year’s Mountaineer squad will stroll onto the campus of the University of Alaska Fair- banks (UAF) as the favorite to win it all yet again. There seems to be but one major obstacle to overcome, with Nanook nation set to cheer their team on to victory with a home-range advantage and the necessary fi repow- er it will take to defeat the Mountaineers.


25-match winning streak for the Mountaineers. Nine of the top 15 indi-


vidual Air Rifl e scores dur- ing the NCAA season were recorded by Mountaineer or Nanook athletes. Five WVU athletes including National Junior Team member Gar- rett Spurgeon (Canton, Mis- souri) have recorded a 596 or higher. Four UAF athletes have done so including Na- tional Team members Sagen Maddalena (Groveland, Cali-


50 USA Shooting News | March 2015


from these two proud pro- grams. Other top contending


schools will be Texas Chris- tian University, Jacksonville State, Kentucky and Air Force, ranked No. 3 thru No. 6 in the rankings. Texas Christian, led by National Team athlete Hannah Black (Richmond, Virginia) and Na- tional Junior Team member Mindy Miles (Weatherford, Texas), owns two top air rifl e scores as well as two


Rifl e Conference Champion- ships at the Air Force Acad- emy in Colorado Springs, becoming just the fi fth per- son ever to record a perfect 600. Matt Rawlings from Alaska fi red the fi rst 600 in NCAA competition. In 2010, West Virginia’s Nicco Com- priani shot a perfect 600. On Oct. 22, 2011 against Army, West Virginia’s Petra Zublasing fi red a 600. For- mer Horned Frog and 2012 Olympian Sarah Scherer is the last shooter to accom- plish the feat doing so on Nov. 1, 2011 against Alaska. Miles is the fi rst freshman ever to accomplish the feat and is peaking at just the right time, having shot a 595 or better in four match-


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