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No. 1 Mountaineers Open Season on Road
October 09, 2015 11:25 AM | Rifle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 1-ranked West Virginia University rifle team opens its 2015-16 season this weekend with two matches at Air Force’s Falcon Rifle Range in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
WVU will line up against the No. 9-ranked Falcons on Saturday, Oct. 10, and will open its Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) season against No. 6 Nebraska on Sunday, Oct. 11.
Both matches are expected to begin at 10 a.m. ET. There will be four relays on Saturday, and results are expected late. Sunday’s match will feature two relays. There will be no live scores for either match.
The Mountaineers enter the season as the three-time reigning NCAA National Champions and the six-time reigning GARC champions. WVU returns six All-Americans return, including four seniors: Michael Bamsey, Meelis Kiisk, Garrett Spurgeon and Patrick Sunderman. Combined, the foursome owns 23 career All-America honors.
“I want to see the team continue to work on what its been doing in practice throughout preseason,” Mountaineer coach Jon Hammond said at the onset of his 10th year at WVU. “I expect the team to show commitment to the match and to work hard while maintaining its composure. This should be a fun weekend, and we’re hoping for a good performance.”
All three teams shot at the 2015 NCAA National Championships. WVU won its nation-best 17th title with a 4702 mark, while Nebraska placed sixth (4657) and Air Force finished seventh (4642).
WVU is 17-0 against Air Force. The squads last met in the 2011-12 season opener, with WVU earning a 4664-4587 win at NU Rifle Range in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Mountaineers are 10-3 all-time against the Huskers, with WVU last earning a 4704-4680 regular-season win at the WVU Rifle Range on Jan. 17, 2015.
“Colorado is a great place to travel to, and I think this trip is the perfect opportunity for the team to spend time together and build relationships,” Hammond furthered. “This is a new range for most of us, and that’s great, too. Overall, this is a really nice way to open a season.”
Bamsey and Spurgeon boast the best air rifle season average of the returning Mountaineers, as each finished the 2014-15 season with a 592 average. The duo finished second and third, respectively, behind former Mountaineer Maren Prediger, on the air rifle podium at the 2015 National Championships.
In total, four returning Mountaineers earned an air rifle season average of 590+ last year, as sophomore Elizabeth Gratz, the reigning GARC Rookie of the Year, tallied a 591 average, and Sunderman earned a 590 average.
Spurgeon, a native of Canton, Missouri, also owns the top returning smallbore average of 582.
This weekend marks Kiisk’s return to competition, as he sat out 2014-15 with a redshirt. The Paide, Estonia, native finished 2013-14 with season averages of 587 in air rifle and 580 in smallbore.
Newcomers Will Anti and Ginny Thrasher will make their Mountaineer debuts this weekend. Anti, the son of WVU’s eight-time rifle All-American Mike Anti, recently shot at the 2015 ISSF Junior Cup in July, where he finished 19th in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions with a score of 1147. Of note, Anti’s father is Air Force’s assistant coach.
Thrasher is coming off a highly successful summer that saw her win five medals, two in open categories and three in junior competitions, at the 2015 USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle/Pistol in June, securing U.S. National Team status.
WVU finished 2014-15 with an 11-1 overall record and went 8-0 against GARC foes.
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