MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 4-ranked West Virginia University rifle team shot a 4707 in the qualifying match for the 2021-22 NCAA Rifle Championships on Saturday afternoon, at the Bill McKenzie Mobile Rifle Range in Morgantown.
 
West Virginia (12-1, 7-1 GARC) finished the match with scores of 2334 in smallbore and 2373 in air rifle to compile its team score of 4707. Combined with the average of the Mountaineers' top-three scores of the 2021-22 regular season, which includes a 4739 at Navy, 4733 at Ole Miss and 4730 at NC State, WVU's qualifying score evens out to 9441.
 
The Mountaineer shot alongside North Georgia and VMI in Saturday's qualifier, who shot a 4605 and 4529, respectively. VMI's women's team also competed in the event and shot a 4389.
 
This weekend's qualifying scores will be tabulated and determine the top-eight teams who will make up the field at this year's NCAA Championships, which will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 22, on NCAA.com.
 
The NCAA Championships, hosted by Air Force, are scheduled for March 11-12, and will take place at the Falcon Rifle Range in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

"I think today was another challenging day for us," WVU coach Jon Hammond said. "Obviously, it wasn't our best team performance, but we know our school will be good to enough to qualify for this year's championship, and that's always the primary objective. Now, we can move out to the conference championship and look forward to NCAA's."
  
Senior Jared Eddy claimed the top spot on the leaderboard for West Virginia and tallied an aggregate score of 1188. The Columbus, Georgia, native shot a match-high 593 in smallbore and a 595 in air rifle.
 
Following in second place, sophomore Matt Sanchez shot an 1183, including a team-high 597 in air rifle. The Tampa, Florida, native also tallied a 586 in smallbore.
 
Junior Akihito Shimizu came in third place, showing a 584 in smallbore and a 596 in air rifle for a combined score of 1180.
 
Sophomore Tal Engler (587 smallbore, 592 air rifle) and junior Malori Brown (587 smallbore, 590 air rifle) rounded out the top five, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively. Engler finished with an aggregate score of 1179, while Brown tallied a combined total of 1177.
 
Freshman Natalie Perrin (581 smallbore, 594 air rifle) shot an 1175, finishing in sixth, and was the sixth Mountaineer to tally an aggregate score of 1175 or better in the match.
 
Senior Verena Zaisberger came in seventh place on the match leaderboard and shot an 1173. Junior Calista Smoyer (1170) and sophomore Becca Lamb (1164) rounded out WVU's presence in the top 10, finishing in eighth and ninth, respectively.
 
Sophomore Molly McGhin rounded out scoring for West Virginia with a combined score of 1161.
 
Five Mountaineers counted for Saturday's qualifying score: Engler, McGhin, Perrin, Shimizu and Zaisberger.
 
Next up, West Virginia travels to West Point, New York, on Monday, Feb. 28, for the 2021-22 Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Championships, hosted by Army. The event will be held at the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center in West Point. A start time for the GARC Championships will be announced later this week.