MURRAY ? The Kentucky rifle team put together one of its best effort of the year on Sunday in its NCAA Qualifying sectional at Murray State.

The Wildcats fired a 2304 smallbore score and season high 2329 air rifle score at the 10-team event. The air rifle tally was good enough for third at the venue while the smallbore score ranked second. Kentucky now awaits results from around the country as it hopes to be among the top eight scores in each even nationally to qualify for the NCAA Championships in March.

?We came out and gave it all we had,? said Kentucky head coach Harry Mullins. ?I thought we had a great week leading up to this and everybody shot as well as we could have hoped. I?m so proud of this team?s effort today.?

Highlighting the day was the air rifle performances, where the Wildcats had three shooters register scores higher than 580. Chris Boggs paced the team with a 586 while Vicki Goss and Amy Sowash each had a 582. Ray Geyer, who had been the team?s top air rifle shooter all year turned in a 579.

?Our air gun performance was the best its been all year. Amy and Vicki have really come on lately and they continued that today,? Mullins said.

Boggs score came on the heels of a personal best 587 smallbore performance. However, he was competing as an individual and his score, which ranked second best at the sectional. The score will likely earn him a competing spot at the national championship as an individual. Geyer?s 581 smallbore tally was the highest score counted toward the team total.

?We left some points on the board with Boggs, but that?s the way it goes,? Mullins said. ?I couldn?t be happier with the way everyone shot. It?s exciting to know that we have everyone but one shooter from this team coming back next year.?

With qualifying out of the way, Kentucky returns to action two weeks from now at the Great American Rifle Conference championships at Oxford, Miss.