UK Rifle Standout Carr Takes Aim at Big Goals

UK rifle standout Hanna Carr excels both on the range and in the classroom. And she has a pretty good idea as to why she’s able to pull it off.

“To be a rifle shooter, you have to be detail-oriented,” Carr said. “You can’t just let it happen. It’s a lot of details. And if you’re a detail-oriented person, it works for rifle.”

Carr knows that the same thing applies to being a student. 

“If you’re in class and you’re focusing on certain things or studying certain things and putting your whole effort into it, you’re focusing on those details,” Carr said.

During her two years in Lexington, Carr has used her immense talent, in addition to her sense of detail, to become one of the best shooters in the country. She also had a huge summer at the USA Shooting National Championships.

“At nationals, I won the smallbore portion, the Women’s Open and the Junior,” Carr said of her summer competitions. “Then, I won the Junior and Open of the prone smallbore as well.” 

And that success has led to even bigger opportunities for Carr.

“Winning the smallbore portion allowed me to be on the national team,” Carr said. “I was able to be on the team and to be able to go to some of these matches, and to be in the running to be selected for some of these (bigger) things.”

As Carr returns to the UK campus for her junior year, there’s not much missing from her impressive resume. But there is one goal she has not yet reached.

“Obviously, the goal is I want to win nationals,” Carr said, speaking both of herself and of her team. “We have the potential to do incredible things. We could win the NCAA, absolutely. We’ve got good people coming in, we’ve got people here who have been growing and will continue to grow. We’re going to figure it out and things could go really well. It’s going to be a good year, I’m really excited.”

Being an upperclassman, Carr hopes to take on more of a leadership role with the team this season.

“I’m a natural leader, it’s just who I am as a person. I am a strong personality,” Carr said of her leadership style “I like to take charge of certain things. I think being an upperclassman, just being older and being a mentor, particularly since we only have two seniors. Our upperclassmen class is mostly the juniors and those of us who have been there. It gives me the ability to be a leader and to vocalize certain things.”

Kentucky head rifle coach Harry Mullins sees Carr as a leader on his squad.

“I think we get a lot of that out of her,” Mullins said. “She has some strong leadership characteristics, and her will and drive to want to succeed boost that as well.”

Mullins also knows that Carr has the competitiveness that he looks for in his student-athletes.

“She’s the pitbull, that’s what we look for is the competitive aspect,” Mullins said of Carr. “She loves to compete.”

Carr, who grew up in nearby Versailles, Kentucky, takes great pride in her Kentucky roots, something she also tries to instill in her teammates.

“I love Kentucky,” Carr said. “I love being here. My parents met here in Lexington (at UK).”

As for her career plans, they involve Kentucky as well.

“I hope to go to medical school and to practice medicine in a rural setting,” Carr said. “Just staying around here and being able to give back is important. I would like to stay in Kentucky, but I do plan to go to medical school after a gap year.”

And it’s during that “gap” year that Carr will try to reach one of her ultimate goals, shooting for the United States in the Olympic Games. 

“I would like to make a run for (the) 2020 (Olympics),” Carr said. “That would give me a year after graduating to go and do nothing but train and then to make a run at it and give it a full go.”

If Carr can continue to pay attention to the details, both on and off the range, big things lie ahead for her in athletics and in life.