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WVU Shoots for Fourth Straight National Title
March 10, 2016 03:34 PM | Rifle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After two weeks of preparation, the No. 1-ranked West Virginia University rifle team will shoot for its fourth consecutive and nation-best 18th national title at the 2016 NCAA Championships, hosted by Akron on March 11-12, at the Louis and Freda Stile Athletics Field House, in Akron, Ohio.
The first smallbore relay is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, with the discipline final set for 3:30 p.m. The first air rifle relay will begin at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, and the discipline final will follow at 2:30 p.m.
The Mountaineers (12-0, 8-0 GARC), the only WVU team to win an NCAA title, will make their 25th NCAA appearance this weekend, as West Virginia looks to capture its fourth straight title and fifth since 2009. The last rifle program to win four consecutive NCAA titles was Alaska-Fairbanks from 2001-04.
“We have grown the program to a place where we expect to go to championships every year, and we expect to be one of the strongest teams there,” Jon Hammond, the 2016 GARC Coach of the Year, said. “It’s always important for us to make sure that we are there in the first place.
“We are going in with a number of seniors this year, so they have been through the process before. The GARC Championships was a really important match for us and it gave us that extra preparation. Our conference championship puts on a similar format and provides a quality field of competition. It gave us a great opportunity to prepare for what’s to come, and it has become part of our routine in planning for the NCAA Championships. There are a lot of teams that don’t compete after the NCAA qualifiers until the NCAA Championships.”
Joining the Mountaineers at this year’s championships are: Alaska-Fairbanks, Kentucky, Murray State, Nebraska, Ohio State, TCU and U.S. Air Force Academy.
All eight teams competing in this weekend’s championships are ranked in the College Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) top 10, with West Virginia sitting at No. 1. WVU remained at the No. 1 spot for the duration of the 2015-16 season, with the exception of dropping two spots to No. 3 in week five. West Virginia also was tied for first in week three, as Murray State checked in at No. 1 for the first time under coach Alan Lollar.
Twenty-two points separate the Mountaineers and the No. 2-ranked Racers in the CRCA Poll, as WVU owns a 9445.67 qualifying average, and Murray State shows a 9422.67 average. The teams met four months ago in a shoulder-to-shoulder match at the University of Akron’s Championship Rehearsal Rifle Match, inside the Louis and Freda Stile Athletics Field House. WVU earned a 4697-4692 victory over Murray State on Nov. 7, as the Mountaineers edged the Racers in both guns, narrowly winning smallbore, 2330-2328, and air rifle, 2367-2364.
Five Mountaineers will shoot for WVU’s counting team this weekend: seniors Garrett Spurgeon, Patrick Sunderman, Meelis Kiisk and Michael Bamsey, as well as freshman Ginny Thrasher.
Spurgeon has counted toward the team scores at the last three NCAA Championships, while Bamsey was a member of WVU’s counting squad in his first season as a Mountaineer last year. Last season, Spurgeon finished third in air rifle (596, 182.8) and fourth in smallbore (583, 432.9), while Bamsey finished second in air rifle (595, 200.6) and seventh in smallbore (581, 398.2). Kiisk shot at the NCAA Championships his sophomore and junior seasons, while Sunderman and Thrasher will shoot at the NCAA Championships for the first time.
For the second straight year, WVU owns the nation’s top-four scores, including an NCAA-record 4740 achieved in a win against Akron on Jan. 17 at the WVU Rifle Range. The team has shot 4700 or better all but two times this season and holds an overall season average of 4712.6. Spurgeon, the GARC Senior and Shooter of the Year, paces the Mountaineers with a 585.2 smallbore average, and Thrasher, the GARC Rookie of the Year and smallbore champion, owns a team-best 595 air rifle average.
“We didn’t think that we could shoot these types of scores that we have, but we have a lot of confidence in the team that we have,” Hammond explained. “We have a great mixture of all the returners, and it was almost like getting a new team member with Meelis (Kiisk) redshirting last year. The two freshmen also have done really well this year. We have a great team atmosphere.
“The day that we broke the national record for the second time surprised us all a little bit. It was one of those days where all the team members had really solid days. It wasn’t an abundance of personal bests, but they all shot to their capabilities on the same day. We have a good group this year, and I think we steadily improved throughout the course of the season. As a coach, that is what you want to see from them as individuals and as a team.”
The Mountaineers capped their third straight undefeated season with a winning 4702 aggregate score at the 2016 GARC Championships on Feb. 28, at the Patricia C. Lamar National Guard Readiness Center, in Oxford, Mississippi. West Virginia now owns a conference-best 11 GARC Championships and is the first team to ever win seven straight GARC titles.
“We have to keep everything normal,” Hammond noted. “The shooters have their routines. We are creatures of habit. We have to stick to our routine and what we have done all year. We don’t need to do anything different or change anything. We have to try and do what we can to make sure we are focused on the task at hand and remind ourselves that it is just another match. We have to keep it simple.”
Last season, the Mountaineers shot 4702 to clinch their third straight title at the 2015 NCAA Rifle Championships, on March 14, at Alaska-Fairbanks’ Patty Center, in Fairbanks, Alaska. UAF finished just two points behind WVU with a 4700 aggregate score to place second. Mountaineer alum Maren Prediger shot a near-perfect 598 air rifle score to advance to the individual final. She scored 205.8 in the final, earning the 2015 air rifle individual title. Prediger’s discipline win pushed West Virginia’s individual NCAA title count to 23.
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