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Thrasher Wins GARC Smallbore Title
February 27, 2016 10:19 PM | Rifle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 1-ranked West Virginia University rifle team shot a 2335 smallbore score and sits in first place at the end of day one at the 2016 Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Championships, today, held at the Patricia C. Lamar National Guard Readiness Center, in Oxford, Mississippi.
All nine conference teams shot today, and the Mountaineers (12-0, 8-0 GARC) represented four of the eight shooters in the individual smallbore final.
Freshman Ginny Thrasher, the 2016 GARC Rookie of the Year, shot a career-high 591 (197 kneeling, 200 prone, 194 standing) in the open relay and 459.5 in the final for the discipline win. Thrasher shot a previous personal-best 590 smallbore mark on Feb. 20, in the NCAA qualifying match, at the WVU Rifle Range. The Springfield, Virginia, native is the fifth different Mountaineer to win the GARC smallbore title, and the first since GARC Shooter and Senior of the Year Petra Zublasing won in 2013. WVU has now won six GARC individual smallbore titles.
“Ginny (Thrasher) had a great performance today overall,” coach Jon Hammond said. “She continues to improve, and she was really consistent throughout the finals. She obviously had another really good day to shoot yet another personal-best this year.”
West Virginia owns a 21-shot lead over No. 2-ranked Kentucky, who sits in second with a score of 2314.
Army is in third place (2310), while Akron (2301) and Nebraska (2300) are in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Host Mississippi is in sixth (2297), Memphis is in seventh (2294), N.C. State is in eighth (2291) and Navy is in ninth place (2283).
Three Mountaineers shot alongside Thrasher in the team smallbore final. Freshman Will Anti shot a career-high 590 (195 kneeling, 199 prone, 196 standing) and finished second with a final score of 455.5, while junior Jean-Pierre Lucas shot 583 (196 kneeling, 198 prone, 189 standing) and placed third with a 446.3 final score.
Senior Garrett Spurgeon, the 2016 GARC Shooter and Senior of the Year, shot 582 (193 kneeling, 197 prone, 192 standing) in the open relay and 425.2 in the final to place fourth.
“We managed to get a little bit of final practice this year, and I think that definitely helped,” Hammond explained. “Especially Will (Anti), he beat his personal-best by a lot. Looking back at the first match of the season to today’s match, Will has improved tremendously. Will had really great efforts today, but so did the rest of the team. They all worked hard. They had to fight a little bit in their matches at different stages, but they had a great attitude throughout.”
In addition, senior Patrick Sunderman and sophomore Elizabeth Gratz shot 579 and 578 smallbore marks in the open relay, respectively.
The WVU counting squad consisted of Spurgeon, Sunderman, Lucas, Gratz and Thrasher.
Of note, seniors Meelis Kiisk and Michael Bamsey shot at the 2016 Rifle/Pistol/Running Target European Championship, in Gyor, Hungary, today, inside the Audi Arena.Former Mountaineer Ziva Dvorsak also competed at the European Championship this weekend.
Kiisk shot 617.9 to place 46th, while Bamsey shot 614.6 to place 60th in the men’s 10m air rifle open relay competition. With a 614.6 score, the Cardiff, Wales, native qualified for a spot on the Great Britain 10m air rifle men’s team. Dvorsak also shot 416.6 to place sixth in the women’s 10m air rifle open relay and advanced to the finals. Dvorsak shot 79.9 and finished eighth overall to qualify for a spot on the Slovenia 10m air rifle women’s team.
“We have to continue to focus on ourselves,” Hammond said. “The team has been shooting really well in air rifle. They all have to keep working on the things that they have been working on individually. They have to trust in themselves and the work that they have put in. They have to go out and shoot their best.”
The Mountaineers will continue their mission for their seventh straight GARC title tomorrow with team air rifle. First shot is set for 9 a.m. ET, followed by individual finals at 12 p.m.
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