MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - The No. 1-ranked West Virginia University rifle team defeated Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) foe, No. 5 Kentucky, for the regular-season GARC title, 4677-4663, today, in Lexington, Kentucky.

 

This is the second regular-season conference win in a row and the second consecutive season the two-time defending national champions have gone undefeated in conference play. WVU now holds eight regular-season titles.

 

“It’s really nice to win our conference back-to-back,” coach Jon Hammond said. “Every team has that as a typical goal at the beginning of the year. I think we’re in one of the best conferences, if not the best, in the country. That makes it that much better to win it.”

 

WVU (11-1, 8-0 GARC) won both disciplines in today’s match, outshooting the Wildcats in smallbore, 2320-2307, and air rifle, 2357-2356.

 

Junior Garrett Spurgeon placed first in both guns, shooting 585 smallbore (192 kneeling, 200 prone, 193 standing) and 596 (100-98-99-100-100-99) air rifle. His air rifle score was one short of his career high, and his 200 prone matched a school record.

 

Junior Michael Bamsey and freshman Elizabeth Gratz shot 582 smallbore and tied for second place. Senior Thomas Kyanko tied for fourth with Kentucky’s Connor Davis, shooting 581. Sophomore Jean-Pierre Lucas and senior Ziva Dvorsak shot 575 and 573, respectively.

 

Dvorsak placed second in air rifle with 594, while junior Patrick Sunderman and senior Maren Prediger tied for third with 593 scores. Bamsey shot 590, and Kyanko followed with a 589 mark. Gratz and Lucas shot 584 and 581, respectively.

 

Bamsey, Dvorsak, Gratz, Kyanko and Lucas were the Mountaineer counters.

 

“Our score today obviously wasn’t our highest team score, but some of the shooters had good personal things going on,” said Hammond. “For quite a few of them, they struggled, but they all worked really hard. Overall we can be satisfied with a lot of things today.”

 

Today’s win pushes the team’s record against the Wildcats to 16-9.

  

The Mountaineers will shoot for a NCAA qualifying score at the WVU Rifle Range on February 21.

 

“Everyone has things to work and improve on,” said Hammond. “We need to make sure our training is really high quality in the next couple weeks for the qualifying match. We’ll tweak the things we can improve on, keep our heads up and train hard.”