Rifle: WVU in 5th Place At NCAA Championship
March 14, 2008 08:00 PM | General
March 14, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University rifle team is currently in fifth place after the smallbore event at the 2008 NCAA Rifle Championships at West Point Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
The team, led by senior Lafe Kunkel, scored a total of 2305 in the event. Kunkel shot a 582 followed by freshman Kyle Smith and Brani Eskew who recorded a score of 578 each. Tommy Santelli finished with 567 on the day.
Army is currently in the lead with a team aggregated score of 2318, Alaska-Fairbanks and Texas Christian are tied with 2312, while Nebraska (2308), WVU (2305), Kentucky (2298), Navy (2268) and Nevada-Reno (2257) round out the field of eight.
Two Mountaineers advanced to the smallbore finals where they shot an additional 10 shots. Kunkel’s score of 582 advanced the senior into the individual smallbore finals, while freshman Andy Lamson qualified to shoot in smallbore as an individual and shot a 580. Kunkel finished fourth, shooting 676.6 while Lamson finished seventh posting a score of 674.1.
Individual and team competitions in air rifle will be held on Saturday, March 15. The overall team champion will be determined by combining the smallbore and air rifle team totals into one aggregate score. Kunkel, and freshmen Eskew, Santelli and Lamson will shoot in the air rifle event tomorrow.
“We are only 13 points from first place,” comments Head Coach Jon Hammond. “We are capable of shooting a higher team total, but we are still in the thick of things. Every team is very close. We have our work cut out for us, but we are looking to shoot well and have a solid day tomorrow.”
WVU holds the most NCAA Rifle Championships since 1980 with 13. Alaska-Fairbanks has won a total of nine and is two-time defending national champions.
West Virginia finished third at the 2008 Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) championship with a team aggregate score of 4,626 on February 24. Hammond was named GARC Coach of the Year, after leading the squad to an 8-3 record this season.
