Rifle: Marksmen Ranked No. 2
February 19, 2003 01:59 PM | General
February 19, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - After firing a team aggregate total of 6218 in the NCAA qualifying match, the West Virginia University rifle team is ranked second in the nation by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA).
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Defending NCAA champion Alaska-Fairbanks is ranked first with a qualifying score of 6305.
The NCAA announced today the team and individual qualifiers for the 2003 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Rifle Championships. The Mountaineers were selected to compete in the smallbore team competition. Despite firing the second highest team score, West Virginia missed qualifying for the air rifle competition by six points.
Individually, junior Nicole Allaire will shoot in both the smallbore and air rifle events. As a freshman at Nebraska in 2000, Allaire fired a 396 in the smallbore standing position to set a new NCAA record and capture the individual championship. This year, Allaire is averaging a 1173 in smallbore and 389.75 in air rifle.
Junior Jon Hammond will also compete in the smallbore individual championships. A Kincardineshire, Great Britian, native, this was Hammond's first year shooting in the United States and in the smallbore competition. He averaged a 1166 on the year.
The team of Allaire, Hammond, and seniors Josh Byers and Wade Tyner will represent the Mountaineers in the smallbore team event. Byers and Tyner were both members of the Mountaineers firing squad that finished seventh at NCAAs last year.
Individual competitions will be held on Friday, March 14, while the team events will take place on Saturday, March 15. The U.S. Military Academy will host the championships in West Point, New York.
The overall team champion will be determined by combining the smallbore and air rifle team totals into one aggregate score.
The Mountaineers will compete in the Great America Rifle Conference championships at Xavier in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 21-23.
