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The Fight to the Top
December 17, 2015 11:50 AM | Rifle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Millimeters make all the difference in a sport that relies on accuracy and precision, and shooting consistently inside the range is something senior Garrett Spurgeon looks to do day-in and day-out.
In his senior season, Spurgeon looks to make history at West Virginia University, and that one millimeter mark is what drives him to stay focused each and every day.
The eight-time All-American has been a major part of the WVU rifle team’s three consecutive national championships, and Spurgeon is more than ready to bring home another title to cap off his final season as a Mountaineer.
Spurgeon has seen his fair share of ups and downs throughout the 2015 fall semester. This spring, he wants to evolve into a more consistent shooter for WVU. That consistency started to develop at the 2015 Winter Airgun Championships from Dec. 4-6, at the Olympic Training Center, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“I definitely had some highs and lows, but I did all the right things gearing up for that match,” Spurgeon explained. “When I got there, everything came together when it needed to.”
Before competing at the annual tournament, Spurgeon entered winter break with air rifle scores below the 590 mark, which is highly unusual for the Canton, Missouri, native.
Spurgeon shot below a 590 air rifle score at three of seven matches this season, and two of those scores came at the end of the fall semester. In the last two home matches, Spurgeon shot a 587 showing in air rifle against Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) foe Army (Nov. 14) and nonconference foe Ohio State (Nov. 21).
Going into the Winter Airgun Championships, Spurgeon was not satisfied with his air rifle marks. This year’s tournament held a greater meaning for Spurgeon than ever before, as it served as one of two trials for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Air Rifle Team. The top-10 participants advanced to the final stage of the trials, set for next June.
“I was coming off a couple low scoring matches right before Thanksgiving, so I thought I did really well with being consistent all weekend,” Spurgeon noted. “I knew that the top 10 advanced, so my goal was to do just that.
“I didn’t have any nerves, because I didn’t have anything to worry about. I was just trying to stay focused with what I was doing, and I was just trying to shoot my match the way I wanted to.”
At the three-day event, Spurgeon shot a relay total of 1885.6 in the 10m air rifle men’s open competition. Spurgeon placed first overall in the men’s air rifle competition and was one of the top-10 participants to advance to the second part of the U.S. Olympic Air Rifle Team trials.
However, the fight to the top is far from over.
“The top 10 all go back to zero, but it was an honor to make the top 10 and advance to the second part of the Olympic Trials,” Spurgeon noted. “I still have work to do, and I know what I need to do. I just have to keep my head down and keep working.”
And work is exactly what Spurgeon has on his mind. He wants to be able to build off his success at the Winter Airgun Championships moving into the spring semester.
“It’s going to be a big positive for me,” Spurgeon stated. “Like I said, I came off a couple of low scoring matches. To have that going into next semester is such a confidence booster. Consistency is the thing that I strive for, and to get back on pace out there is a big positive for me.”
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