MORGANTOWN, W.Va.– The No.2-ranked West Virginia University rifle team opens the spring portion of its 2016-17 season on Tuesday, Jan. 10, against No. 7 Alaska-Fairbanks in Morgantown.
The match is set to begin at 8 a.m. with the smallbore discipline.
The Mountaineers are 11-7 all-time against Alaska-Fairbanks. WVU defeated the Nanooks last season, 4724-4697, in Morgantown.
“Facing Alaska-Fairbanks is always a challenging match,” Mountaineer coach Jon Hammond said. “They’re a great team and they have a huge amount of history. They’ve lost some strong shooters over the past couple of years, but equally they still have some strong shooters that I think will individually challenge the best on our team. Alaska-Fairbanks is always one of the top contenders at the NCAA Championships.”
WVU (7-0, 5-0 GARC) returns to competition following a 4712-4657 win at Army West Point on Nov. 13.The Mountaineers outshot the Black Knights in both disciplines, shooting 2374-2354 in air rifle and 2338-2303 in smallbore.
At Army West Point, senior Jean-Pierre Lucas led the way in smallbore for the Mountaineers, matching his season-high score of 588. Freshmen Morgan Phillips and Milica Babic placed second and third with scores of 587 and 583, respectively.
In the air rifle discipline, Phillips, Babic and junior Elizabeth Gratz tied for first place, scoring 594.
“We’re excited to get back into competition,” Hammond said. “We’ve been training for a couple of days to prepare, but at the same time we’re also aware we’re really preparing for February and March right now.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress the last couple of days getting back together as a team. Everyone gets to go home for break and has a chance to refresh, but with us especially having such a young team, just having some team time has been really valuable.”
In their last competition, Alaska-Fairbanks defeated NC State 4674-4647, scoring 2320-2286 in smallbore and 2354-2361 air rifle, on Nov. 20, in Fairbanks.
