MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Despite shooting a season-best 2387 to claim the air rifle relay, the West Virginia University rifle team finished with a team score of 4732 to finish in second place at the 2021-22 Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Championships on Saturday afternoon in West Point, New York.
The Mountaineers' 2387 in air rifle finished four points better than Kentucky, who shot a 2383 in the relay. However, WVU finished three points shy of UK's team score of 4735 to finish as the 2021-22 GARC Championships runner-up.
Nine Mountaineers tallied a 590 or better in Saturday's air rifle relay, including six who shot a 595 or better. Junior
Akihito Shimizu led West Virginia and tied for Ole Miss' Claire O'Neel for the top score in the discipline, after shooting a career-best 599. Shimizu would finish in second in the prelims, as O'Neel edged him out in center shots, 54-53.
The Tokushima, Japan, native finished ahead of sophomore
Tal Engler, who shot a 597 and finished fifth, and junior
Calista Smoyer, who tallied a 596 to finish eighth. The trio all advanced to the air rifle final to cap the match.
In the air rifle finale, Shimizu shot a 227.5 to finish in third place behind Kentucky's Allison Buesseler (252.0) and Memphis' Angeline Henry (250.8) to claim his second medal of the championships.
Engler (164.1) and Smoyer (143.1) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the final.
"I'm really happy with the team's performance and how hard they worked today," WVU coach
Jon Hammond said. "It was one of our best air rifle matches of the season, and we almost overcame the deficit to Kentucky. More important than the result is the performance and effort that the team gave today and over the championship, and I'm really pleased with that.
"It gives us a good platform to build off for the remaining few weeks and to go to NCAA Championships with confidence of having another good team effort. There were some really good individual performances today and over the championship. Aki's air rifle was excellent today, but also Tal and a number of the others."
On the overall match leaderboard, Engler and UK's Buesseler tallied matching 1187's. However, the West Virginia sophomore edged out Buesseler in center shots, 87-86, to take the top aggregate score at this year's championships.
Shimizu also shot an 1187 on the weekend, but tied Buesseler in centers, 86-86, and tied for second on the overall match leaderboard.
"Aki and Tal finishing in the top three of the combined aggregate for the weekend shows how good their performance was against many good teams and individual athletes," Hammond added.
Behind Smoyer's aggregate score of 1182, senior
Verena Zaisberger shot a 595 and finished the weekend with an 1180. The Hohenems, Austria, native was the fourth Mountaineers to tally a combined score of 1180 or better at this year's championships.
Senior
Jared Eddy shot a 596 in air rifle to post a combined score of 1177, while sophomore
Matt Sanchez tallied a 595 in the relay to show a total of 1175.
Freshman
Natalie Perrin (1174) finished one point behind Sanchez and shot a 592 in air rifle. Sophomore
Molly McGhin followed Perrin, with an 1173, after shooting a 589 in Saturday's relay.
Rounding out scores for West Virginia, junior
Malori Brown tallied a 594 in air rifle to finish the championships with an 1172, while sophomore
Becca Lamb shot a 590 in air rifle and showed a combined score of 1159.
The Mountaineers will take a week off from competition before traveling to Colorado Springs, Colorado, from March 11-12, for the 2021-22 NCAA Rifle Championships. This year's event is hosted by Air Force and will take place at the Falcon Rifle Range in Colorado Springs.
West Virginia qualified as the field's sixth-ranked team with a qualifying mark of 9441, based on the team's qualifying average of 4734 combined with its qualifying score of 4707, earned on Feb. 19, at the Bill McKenzie Rifle Range in Morgantown.
