National Champs Score 23 All-America Honors
March 15, 2015 01:48 PM | General
 |
| WVU won its third straight NCAA Championship and scored 23 All-America Honors on March 14. |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On the heels of its third straight and nation-best 17th national championship, the No. 1 West Virginia University rifle team scored 23 All-America honors at the NCAA Postseason Banquet, March 14, in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Eight Mountaineers earned eight College Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) and a combined 15 National Rifle Association (NRA) All-America awards.
Junior Garrett Spurgeon lead the Mountaineers, as he was named to the NRA Smallbore and Air Rifle First Teams, as well as the CRCA All-America First Team. He now owns eight career All-America honors, including seven first-team awards.
Senior Thomas Kyanko, junior Michael Bamsey and sophomore Jean-Pierre Lucas also landed NRA First Team Smallbore awards, a first for all three shooters.
Bamsey and Kyanko earned NRA First Team and Second Team Air Rifle awards, respectively, and both landed CRCA All-America Second Team honors.
The 2015 NCAA Air Rifle Champion, senior Maren Prediger, ended her career with NRA First Team Air Rifle and CRCA All-America Second Team awards. The honors were the third and second straight for the Petersaurach, Germany native, respectively.
Senior Ziva Dvorsak and freshman Elizabeth Gratz joined Bamsey and Prediger on the NRA First Team Air Rifle roster, the second honor for Dvorsak, and also scored NRA Second Team Smallbore honors. The duo earned CRCA All-America First and Second Team awards, respectively. The honors are the first of Gratz’s career.
Junior Patrick Sunderman landed NRA Second Team Air Rifle and Smallbore and CRCA All-America Second Team awards.
Lucas completed the awards list with NRA Honorable Mention Air Rifle and CRCA All-America Third Team honors.
The Mountaineers won their third straight NCAA Championship with a 4702 score, March 13-14, at Alaska-Fairbanks’s E.F. Horton Rifle Range and Patty Center in Fairbanks, Alaska. The win was the fourth under nine-year coach Jon Hammond.
WVU earned second place in smallbore (2319) on March 13 and came back from a 12-point deficit yesterday to defeat second-place No. 2 Alaska-Fairbanks (4700) with a 2383 air rifle score, the second-best in NCAA rifle history.
NCAA Selection Show
Wednesday, May 13
WVU Baseball Defensive Highlights
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas Recap
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas State Recap
Tuesday, May 12
