Rifle: NCAA Qualifier Saturday at Xavier
February 10, 2005 12:11 PM | General
February 10, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University rifle team takes aim at a bid in the NCAA Championships on Saturday, Feb. 12, as the Mountaineers will compete against Xavier in Cincinnati, Ohio. The scores from the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) match will be used as West Virginia’s NCAA qualifier.
West Virginia, 13-time national champions, have qualified as a team for 22 of the 25 championships since the first year of NCAA-sponsored competition in 1980 and last won a title in 1998. From 1980-98 the Mountaineers placed either first or second before third-place finishes in 1999 and 2001 and seventh in 2002. The Mountaineers qualified in smallbore only in 2000 and 2003, while last year West Virginia did not have an NCAA sponsored team.
In addition to the WVU-Xavier match on Saturday, GARC officials voted in a conference call earlier this week to add a WVU-Memphis match to the schedule. West Virginia’s scores on Saturday will be compared with Memphis’ scores at Murray State on Friday, Feb. 11, to determine a winner. This match will give the Tigers the allotted amount of GARC matches for eligibility for conference awards and give the Mountaineers a sixth conference match.
West Virginia (3-6, 0-4), coming off a 4561-4611 GARC loss to Kentucky on Feb. 5, is seeking its first win in GARC action of the season. Xavier (5-4, 2-3) enters the match after beating non-conference opponent Ohio State, 4637-4495, on Feb. 6.
The match marks the Mountaineers last meeting with the Musketeers as Xavier will drop its program at the conclusion of the season. The two teams have met 14 times since 1990 with WVU winning 13. West Virginia’s competition with Memphis is the first all-time between the two schools.
NCAA Championships will be held March 11-12 in Colorado Springs, Colo., after the GARC Championships in Oxford, Miss., from Feb. 25-27.
