Rifle: No. 1 WVU Shoots for GARC Crown
February 04, 2011 02:55 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 1 West Virginia rifle team takes to the road and shoots for its second consecutive Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) regular-season title on Saturday, Feb. 5, at No. 4 Kentucky, at Barker Hall, in Lexington, Ky. The Mountaineers will close out the weekend against No. 11 Columbus State on Feb. 6, also in Lexington. Both matches are slated for 8 a.m. starts.
A victory over the Wildcats on Saturday would give WVU its seventh GARC regular-season title since 1998.
The Mountaineers (9-1, 5-0 GARC) own a 14-6 series record over the Wildcats (9-1, 5-0 GARC), while Sunday’s shoulder-to-shoulder match is the squad’s first against the Cougars (3-3).
WVU and UK have developed a heated conference rivalry over the last decade. The Wildcats have won three GARC championships since 2004, including their most recent title win in 2009, the same season the Mountaineers secured their nation-best 14th NCAA championship.
The Mountaineers took both the conference and regular-season crowns away from the Wildcats last year. In total, WVU outshot UK three times throughout the 2009-10 season, including a 4691-4642 regular-season victory in Morgantown. The win was the team’s first over UK since 2003.
“I think the team has had some good matches over the last few weeks, and I think we are ready to go down to Kentucky,” says fifth-year coach Jon Hammond. “The match with the Wildcats is a big one. The regular-season conference title is on the line, and this will be a great test against a team that should be a factor in this year’s NCAA Championships.”
The Mountaineers and Wildcats sport identical records, with both teams’ only loss coming at the hands of No. 2 TCU, the reigning national champions.
The Cougars recently shot 4596 on Jan. 22 at the Winthrow Invitational and finished fifth out of 11 teams.
The Mountaineers, on hiatus for two weeks, return to the range for the first time since defeating No. 2 Alaska-Fairbanks, 4696-4646, on Jan. 22, in Morgantown. The squad enjoyed a record-setting outing, shooting a school-record air rifle score 2374 for the second time in as many matches. Additionally, the team’s aggregate total was one shot short of the school record.
Senior Nicco Campriani shone brightest against the Nanooks, shooting a perfect 600 air rifle score and 590 smallbore for a school-record 1190 aggregate total. His air rifle mark tied a world record, though it was not credited as one since he did not shoot it at an international competition. Additionally, he also shot a school-record 198 standing score.
Campriani, the reigning GARC air rifle, smallbore and combined score champion, paces the Mountaineers in all three disciplines with averages of 596.29, 588.29 and 1184.57, respectively.
Both weekend matches are expected to play into the afternoon. A live blog and online scoring for Saturday’s match can be found at www.ukathletics.com.
A victory over the Wildcats on Saturday would give WVU its seventh GARC regular-season title since 1998.
The Mountaineers (9-1, 5-0 GARC) own a 14-6 series record over the Wildcats (9-1, 5-0 GARC), while Sunday’s shoulder-to-shoulder match is the squad’s first against the Cougars (3-3).
WVU and UK have developed a heated conference rivalry over the last decade. The Wildcats have won three GARC championships since 2004, including their most recent title win in 2009, the same season the Mountaineers secured their nation-best 14th NCAA championship.
The Mountaineers took both the conference and regular-season crowns away from the Wildcats last year. In total, WVU outshot UK three times throughout the 2009-10 season, including a 4691-4642 regular-season victory in Morgantown. The win was the team’s first over UK since 2003.
“I think the team has had some good matches over the last few weeks, and I think we are ready to go down to Kentucky,” says fifth-year coach Jon Hammond. “The match with the Wildcats is a big one. The regular-season conference title is on the line, and this will be a great test against a team that should be a factor in this year’s NCAA Championships.”
The Mountaineers and Wildcats sport identical records, with both teams’ only loss coming at the hands of No. 2 TCU, the reigning national champions.
The Cougars recently shot 4596 on Jan. 22 at the Winthrow Invitational and finished fifth out of 11 teams.
The Mountaineers, on hiatus for two weeks, return to the range for the first time since defeating No. 2 Alaska-Fairbanks, 4696-4646, on Jan. 22, in Morgantown. The squad enjoyed a record-setting outing, shooting a school-record air rifle score 2374 for the second time in as many matches. Additionally, the team’s aggregate total was one shot short of the school record.
Senior Nicco Campriani shone brightest against the Nanooks, shooting a perfect 600 air rifle score and 590 smallbore for a school-record 1190 aggregate total. His air rifle mark tied a world record, though it was not credited as one since he did not shoot it at an international competition. Additionally, he also shot a school-record 198 standing score.
Campriani, the reigning GARC air rifle, smallbore and combined score champion, paces the Mountaineers in all three disciplines with averages of 596.29, 588.29 and 1184.57, respectively.
Both weekend matches are expected to play into the afternoon. A live blog and online scoring for Saturday’s match can be found at www.ukathletics.com.
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