UK Rifle Split into Two Squads for First Matches of Season
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 4 Kentucky rifle will begin the
2016-17 season with two matches on Saturday. The team will be split into two
squads to compete at two locations – in Oxford, Mississippi, for the Ole Miss
Open and at home for a match with North Georgia. The team will be split into
two squads to compete at both locations. Live targets for the home match can be
found here,
while Ole Miss Open targets can be found here.
“We’re excited for the season opener with North Georgia at
home,” head coach Harry Mullins said. “We’re taking the other six athletes down
to Ole Miss for the Ole Miss Open. We’ve been training really hard for the last
month and a half to get ready for this. The team’s been doing really well.
“We’re looking for some good performances. Our strength of
schedule is pretty tough. Having to start out with the Ole Miss Open and North
Georgia is going to test everybody. Looking at the first match, we’re hoping to
stay in the range that we have been training and then looking to improve from
there.”
Billy Azzinaro, Hanna Carr, Heather Kirby, Sonya May,
Cathryn Papasodora, and Jason Spaude make up the squad for the Wildcats that will
travel to Ole Miss for their first event of the season that’s set to begin at 9
a.m. ET.
During her freshman campaign, Carr won the GARC Air Rifle
Championship and was named a smallbore first-team All-American and a
second-team All-American selection in combined and air rifle. The Versailles,
Kentucky, native was also the USA Shooting Junior Olympic Champion in
three-position rifle and was a Team USA Selection for the ISSF World
Championships. Carr averaged a 1175.75 in aggregate, 590.58 in air rifle and
585.17 in smallbore. Her smallbore season-best of 592 tied for the best
performance by any collegiate competitor across the national all season, while
her season-high aggregate score of 1186 also tied for the top score by a
collegian in a match all season.
May comes into her senior season after finishing 12th
at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s three-position smallbore 50-meter
event. The experienced Rockland, Massachusetts, native also shot the team-high
air rifle score (597) prior to the finals at the GARC Championships last
season. May averaged a 592.13 in air rifle, and a 1171.625 in aggregate. She is
a three-time All-American.
Kirby enters her senior season as well being a three-time
All-American. She averaged 591.29 in air rifle last season. Her season-high air
rifle score of 595 came on Feb. 20 against Morehead State in the NCAA
Qualifier.
Azzinaro, a junior from East Brunswick, New Jersey, took
bronze at the USA Shooting Junior Olympics in 50-meter three-position smallbore
over the summer. Last season, Azzinaro averaged a 585.89 in air rifle, with an
aggregate average of 1161.88.
Spaude averaged a 585.2 last season in air rifle. His
season-high air rifle score of 588 came in a match vs. Murray State before
going on to shoot 587 on six different occasions, one of which came at the GARC
Championships.
Papasodora, also a sophomore like Spaude, picked up her
season-high air rifle score of 594 in a match against this weekend’s
competition last season. As a freshman, Papasodora averaged a 587.79 in air
rifle and 574.29 in smallbore.
Jenna Bethea, Morgan Duerr, Ian Foos, Carmen Fry, Andrew
Miller, and Jason Sharbel make up the squad for the Wildcats that will compete
at home against North Georgia. The Nighthawks enter Saturday’s match after
shooting 4563 in Oxford last week. Start time is set for 8 a.m. ET.
As a freshman last season, Fry averaged a 588 in air rifle,
and a 574.36 in smallbore, while posting her season-high air rifle score of
593. Bethea, a sophomore from Milledgeville, Georgia, enters this season with a
586.56 air rifle average, while Sharbel enters with a 582. Miller averaged
571.33 in air rifle during his junior season and shot his season-high air rifle
score of 574 at the GARC Championships.
The two newcomers to the program, freshmen Duerr and Foos,
will see the first action of their careers at Kentucky on Saturday. Foos was a
USA Shooting National Champion. During his prep career, Foos won multiple state
championships, regional championships, and the Montgomery Bell Academy Rifle
Classic, the largest school sponsored shooting event in the United States.
