MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –
Nine shooters from the West Virginia University rifle team earned a combined 22 honors on the 2022-23 All-Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Team, the league announced.
Of WVU's 22 All-GARC honors this year, six student-athletes made the smallbore team, six made the air rifle team and seven were a part of the combined (smallbore and air rifle) team.
Additionally, senior
Mary Tucker was named the GARC's Shooter and Senior of the Year, after averaging scores of 593.83 in smallbore, 598.5 in air rifle and 1192.333 overall in 2022-23. The Sarasota, Florida, native is the first Mountaineer to win GARC Shooter of the year since Ginny Thrasher in 2019 and the 10th in program history. She is also the first to win GARC Senior of the Year since Milica Babic in 2020 and the 12th in program history.
Senior
Calista Smoyer represented West Virginia in the GARC's Scholar-Athlete category.
In smallbore, Tucker was selected to the first team with the highest average (593.83), while junior
Tal Engler (585.83), junior
Molly McGhin (585.29) and senior
Malori Brown (585.29) were named to the relay's second team.
Fifth-year senior
Verena Zaisberger (584.14) and senior
Akihito Shimizu (583.29) earned an honorable mention.
In air rifle, Tucker (598.5) and junior
Matt Sanchez (595.14) were named to the first team, while McGhin (594.86) Shimizu (594.29) and Zaisberger (594.0) garnered second-team honors.
Sophomore
Natalie Perrin (593.43) was selected as an honorable mention in air rifle this year.
Tucker swept first-team honors and was named to this year's combined team, with a 1192.333 average. McGhin swept second-team honors, with a 1180.143 combined average, as Zaisberger (1178.143) was also named to the second team for aggregate score.
Engler (1178.0), Shimizu (1177.571), Sanchez (1176.714), and Brown (1176.429) earned honorable mention status in the category to round out this year's awards.
For more information on the Mountaineers, visit
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