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Gratz Ascends Podium at Olympic Trial
June 05, 2016 07:31 PM | Rifle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rising West Virginia University junior Elizabeth Gratz finished third in the women’s 10m air rifle competition at the United States Olympic Team Trials for Airgun. The three-day competition concluded today at Camp Perry, Ohio.
Gratz, a Sigel, Illinois, native, was one of five Mountaineer shooters at the Olympic qualifier and the only to ascend the podium. She placed third overall with a 1260.6 mark. Gratz qualified for the final each day, shooting 414.4 on Friday, 413.7 on Saturday and a field-high 417.5 today. She had her best final showing on Saturday, shooting 206.4 and finishing in second, good enough for seven additional points. Gratz placed fourth on Friday with a 162.5 and sixth today with a 123.4, earning a combined eight additional points.
“It was a great weekend of exciting shooting,” WVU coach Jon Hammond said. “Elizabeth and Garrett (Spurgeon) performed so well and came up just short of making the Olympic team. They can be proud of their efforts all weekend.
“Elizabeth should be very proud of shooting the highest score on the final day and finishing third overall. Her performance will give her a lot of confidence in the things she is working on and in trusting her own abilities. Shooting under these types of conditions gave her great experience to take into next season. She will be one of the leaders as an upperclassmen on the team.”
Sarah Scherer earned the Olympic roster spot with a three-day score of 1268.9. She finished first in the final on Saturday and placed second today and Friday.
Bryant Wallizer, a 2010 WVU graduate, paced the four Mountaineers in the men’s competition with a fifth-place finish, earning a score of 1875.8. He shot 623.7 Friday, 620.8 on Saturday and 626.3 today. Wallizer placed eighth in the final Friday (81.2) and today (79.8), and sixth (122.1) on Saturday.
Mountaineer graduate assistant Dan Hermsmeier finished seventh overall with a 1873.5 total, shooting 617.8 Friday, 624.3 Saturday and 623.4 Sunday. After failing to qualify for the final Friday, Hermsmeier finished fifth on Saturday (143.6) and today (143.0).
Garrett Spurgeon, a 2016 WVU graduate, placed ninth with a 1871.5 mark, shooting 623.8 Friday, 624.6 Saturday and 613.1 Sunday; his score Saturday was the second-highest mark of the day. He placed fifth (145.0) in Friday’s final and third (186.0) yesterday; Spurgeon did not qualify for today’s final.
Finally, 2015 WVU graduate Thomas Kyanko placed 11th with a score of 1862.1, shooting 619.0 Friday, 623.3 Saturday and 617.8 Sunday. He qualified for the final on Saturday and placed seventh with a 100.7 mark.
Lucas Kozeniesky (1902.4) and Daniel Lowe (1883.8) claimed the two men’s roster spots.
Rising sophomore Ginny Thrasher secured a roster spot for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics with a first-place finish at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Smallbore in April. Three additional Mountaineers also have punched their tickets for the upcoming Olympic Games: Petra Zublasing (Italy), Nicco Campriani (Italy) and Ziva Dvorsak (Slovenia).
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