No. 4 WVU Falls to No. 2 Kentucky, Claims Share of GARC Title

Saturday, February 12

Morgantown, W.Va.

9:00 a.m.

West Virginia University

4700

4702

Kentucky

Photo by: Megan Crain

No. 4 WVU Falls to No. 2 Kentucky, Claims Share of GARC Title

February 12, 2022 04:40 PM | Rifle

Results

By: Tanner Cain

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 4-ranked West Virginia University rifle team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday afternoon, as the Mountaineers fell to No. 2 Kentucky, 4702-4700, at the Bill McKenzie Mobile Rifle Range inside the WVU Shell Building in Morgantown.

Despite the loss, WVU claimed a share of the 2021-22 Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) regular-season title. The Mountaineers share the league crown with UK and Ole Miss this season. West Virginia has now been named the GARC regular-season champion in each of the last two seasons.

West Virginia began the match by besting Kentucky in smallbore, 2329-2325, and went into the air rifle relay with a four point. However, the Wildcats shot six points better than the Mountaineers in air rifle, 2377-2371, to claim the match.

WVU was led by sophomore Tal Engler who tallied an aggregate score of 1185, which included a career-best 599 mark in air rifle. Engler's 599 led the match's air rifle standings. UK's Will Shaner took the top spot on the overall leaderboard with a combined score of 1186 (589 smallbore, 597 air rifle).

Behind Shaner's 589, which led the match smallbore standings, juniors Malori Brown (1180 aggregate) and Akihito Shimizu (1176 aggregate) each shot a 587 to lead West Virginia in the relay. The Mountaineer duo placed second and third in smallbore, respectively.

"Today was a challenging match, and overall, we're probably disappointed with the performance and outcome and know we can do better," WVU coach Jon Hammond said. "We didn't get the best start in kneeling, and then, we're on the back foot throughout the match.

"There were definitely some positives, and it was great to see Tal shoot such a good match in air rifle, as well as some solid smallbore scores from Malori and Aki. I think there will be a lot of things we can learn and take from the match to take back to training."

Six Mountaineers placed inside the top 10 of the match's individual standings, including Engler, Brown and Shimizu. The trio ranked second, fourth and sixth in the overall standings, respectively.

Sophomore Molly McGhin came in seventh place, after shooting an 1174 overall (585 smallbore, 589 air rifle), and was followed by junior Calista Smoyer (1174 aggregate) who placed eighth. Smoyer shot a 582 in smallbore and 592 in air rifle.

Sophomore Matt Sanchez rounded came in 10th place to round out the individual, top-10 leaderboard, shooting a combined score of 1170 (580 smallbore, 590 air rifle.

Rounding out scores for the Mountaineers, senior Jared Eddy (579 smallbore, 589 air rifle) and sophomore Becca Lamb (574 smallbore, 594 air rifle) each shot an 1168 in the match. The two were followed by freshman Natalie Perrin (573 smallbore, 594 air rifle), who shot an 1167, and senior Verena Zaisberger (577 smallbore, 589 air rifle), who tallied an 1166.

"We have four weeks left and some tough challenging matches remaining," Hammond added. "So, we really need to work hard and find ways to keep improving and understand what we need to do to perform at our best."

Next up, West Virginia begins postseason action on Saturday, Feb. 19, as the Mountaineers welcome VMI and North Georgia to Morgantown to participate in the qualifying match for the NCAA Championships. A start time for the match will be announced within the week.