Rifle: WVU Opens 2009-10 Season on Road
October 09, 2009 02:27 PM | General
October 9, 2009
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| Bryant Wallizer |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The defending NCAA champion West Virginia University rifle team opens its 2009-10 season in Lincoln, Neb., this weekend against Air Force on Saturday, Oct. 10, and Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) foe Nebraska on Sunday. Both matches will begin at 9 a.m. ET.
The contests mark the Mountaineers’ return to the range following their nation-best 14th national championship run last March. In addition to the national title, WVU also secured the NCAA air rifle championship with a team score of 2353.
Eight student-athletes return to make the push for their second-straight title, with fourth-year coach Jon Hammond, the 2009 College Rifle Coaches Association Coach of the Year, again guiding the squad.
“I’m looking for good scores this weekend. Though it's early in the season, this weekend will factor into our qualification for the 2010 NCAA Championship,” Hammond says. “On the other hand, we do not need to shoot personal-bests or school records this weekend. These matches will serve as a good measuring stick to see where the team stands and where we need to focus our training.”
WVU’s match with Air Force will be its first since 1974; the Mountaineers have never lost to the Falcons and own a 15-match win streak.
“I’m excited to be shooting against Air Force again after such a long break in our series,” Hammond says. “They are an up-and-coming team, and their coach (Launi Meili) has really progressed them over the last two seasons.”
The Mountaineers’ second match of the weekend is with conference opponent Nebraska, a squad WVU defeated last season, 4650-4622, in Morgantown. The win evened the series with the Cornhuskers at 3-3. WVU finished the year with a 5-1 GARC record.
Among the eight returning Mountaineer letterwinners are seven National Rifle Association All-Americans, including 2009 first team air rifle honorees Bryant Wallizer and Andy Lamson, and first team smallbore honorees Brandi Eskew and Kyle Smith.
Wallizer, the lone WVU senior, returns after a stellar first season with the Mountaineers in which he paced the squad in air rifle with a 588.79 season average and finished second overall in the discipline at the NCAA Championship with a final score of 691. Additionally, the Little Orleans, Md., native, a three-time air rifle All-American, also won the 2009 air rifle title at the USA Shooting National Championships last June.
Junior Nicco Campriani is the only Mountaineer newcomer. A native of Florence and a six-year member of the Italian National Team, Campriani brings a wealth of experience with him, as he finished 12th in air rifle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Campriani will be eligible to compete for WVU in January 2010.
The Mountaineers finished the 2008-09 season at 11-1 overall. Conference opponent Kentucky was the only squad to defeat WVU, as the Wildcats trumped the Mountaineers in a shoulder-to-shoulder match, 4649-4639, and finished first at the GARC Championship, where WVU finished a program-best second.
Following its two-match stand in Lincoln, WVU travels to Columbus, Ohio, for an Oct. 17 meeting with Ohio State.
