Rifle: Seventh-Place Finish at GARC
February 27, 2005 07:14 PM | General
February 27, 2005
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OXFORD, Miss. – The West Virginia University rifle team concluded its 2004-05 season Sunday at the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) championships hosted by Mississippi. The Mountaineers placed seventh with a team aggregate score of 4,576.
Nebraska won its first-ever GARC title with a 4,663, followed by top-seeded Army with a second-place sum of 4,647, and defending champion Kentucky with a 4,632. Memphis (4,620), Ole Miss (4,612) and Xavier (4,605) also rounded out the field in front of WVU. Having all the teams except for Ole Miss and West Virginia qualify for nationals, the GARC is considered the best conference in the NCAA.
West Virginia earned high marks in smallbore as the Mountaineers tied for fourth with Kentucky with a score of 2,304. Army won the smallbore shoot with a 2,318.
Freshman Amy Smith led the way for West Virginia as a finalist in the smallbore competition. Smith placed eighth in the discipline firing a 582 and went on to shoot 90 in the finals to finish with 672.
The next highest placing Mountaineer in either discipline was junior Brian Launer’s 15th-place score of 577 in smallbore, followed by freshman Lafe Kunkel shooting a 575 good for 23rd, senior Eric Hensil 37th with a 570.
The air rifle scores for West Virginia were not as high as the Mountaineers finished seventh compiling a score of 2,272. Nebraska, a second-place finisher in smallbore with a 2,314, used air rifle as a springboard to the championship after firing a 2,349, a solid 16 points more than Memphis’ 2,333.
Launer’s 40th-place total of 570 in air paced the Mountaineers.
Army’s Chris Abalo took home the smallbore title with a 590 (686) and Memphis’ Beth Tidmore won air rifle with a 593 (692).
West Virginia sophomore Robin Glebes was named one of seven GARC Scholar Athletes in the league's post-season awards released over the weekend.
