No. 1 Rifle Shoots NCAA Qualifying Match
February 21, 2015 06:17 PM | General
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| Prediger |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 1-ranked West Virginia University rifle team shot a 4705 NCAA Qualifying score, today, at the WVU Rifle Range.
The Mountaineers (11-1, 8-0 GARC) didn’t shoot against a specific opponent, however, their team aggregate score factors into their final NCAA Championships qualification average. The eight-team slate for the NCAA Rifle Championships will be announced on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 5 p.m., at NCAA.com.
WVU shot a 2328 smallbore mark and 2377 in the air rifle discipline.
“Every match is helpful and gives the team experience,” said coach Jon Hammond. “We had lots of really good performances today, and that will give those athletes some confidence going into the final weeks of the season. There is still a lot to keep working on, but that is the nature of this sport.”
Junior Garrett Spurgeon lead the team in smallbore with a 588 score, just one short of his career high. Senior Maren Prediger shot a career-high 585, while junior Michael Bamsey shot 580. Freshman Elizabeth Gratz shot 575, and senior Ziva Dvorsak completed the Mountaineer counting squad with 570.
Junior Patrick Sunderman shot 586, a season-high mark and one short of his career high. Senior Thomas Kyanko shot 585, while sophomore Jean-Pierre Lucas scored 583.
“The team members were definitely competing with each other today,” said Hammond. “There is a lot of talent on the team, and they are all really competitive with each other. This keeps them working hard and trying to improve all the time, so it’s a great motivator for all of them.”
Prediger paced WVU in air rifle with 597, two short of her career-high mark. Spurgeon followed with 594, while Bamsey and Dvorsak both shot 593, and Gratz followed with 592.
Lucas shot 591, one short of his career high, and Kyanko followed with 590. Sunderman scored 585 in the gun.
Of note, Prediger tied her aggregate personal-best score of 1182.
“We had a lot of excellent scores today highlighted by Maren’s personal best in smallbore,” said Hammond. “To follow that up with the high air rifle score of the day for a combined personal best was really good to see.”
The Mountaineers will return to post-season competition and travel to the Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Championships, February 28-March 1, in Oxford, Mississippi. WVU holds back-to-back regular-season conference titles, a conference-best eight championships titles and has won the past five consecutive championships.
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