Cats Fall to Top-Ranked Mountaineers for Only Conference Loss

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The third-ranked Kentucky rifle team suffered its only conference loss, second overall, in the final match of the regular season to defending conference and national champion No. 1 West Virginia (4720-4693) inside the Bill McKenzie Rifle Range on Sunday.
 
UK matched its best air rifle total (2376) of the season, but it wasn’t enough as the Mountaineers claimed the Great American Rifle Conference regular season title.
 
“We came into the match prepared for the atmosphere, but after going through it once, we’re going to have to revisit it,” head coach Harry Mullins said. “In smallbore, we pushed the shots pretty hard, sometimes too hard. This is always a great match. West Virginia is an amazing team and that alone will cause you to shoot differently when you show up. It was great to see Hailee (Sigmon) continue on the pace that she’s been training at. Overall, we’re making strides in the right direction, and it is going to come down to how fast the track will be going into the remainder of the season. We worked hard today; we just have to learn how to get that intensity in training.”
 
After missing the last match, Henrik Larsen led the Wildcats, posting match-high numbers in smallbore with a 590 and combined with 1187. The freshmen’s 597 is his second highest score in air rifle to date and sixth time going above 596 this season. Larsen finished as the top individual in every match he competed in during the regular season.
 
Sigmon continues to impress after she had another career day in air rifle, this time matching Larsen’s 597, which was the second highest score in the discipline for the match. Sunday marked the fifth time in the last seven matches that the freshman achieved a new personal best. She reached her previous record of 596 in the last win against No. 16 Memphis.
 
Junior Cathryn Papasodora fired a point off her third highest air rifle score of the season at 592. She was the next Wildcat in the air rifle standings on the leaderboard and ultimately shot an 1164 aggregate. Billy Azzinaro fired a 590 in air rifle – his seventh time reaching that mark or better this season. Hanna Carr finished with an 1165 aggregate following a 589 in air rifle.
 
UK finishes the regular season ranked second in the GARC with a record of 13-1 and an overall record of 29-2. The Wildcats will be back in action with their final homestand of the 2017-18 season when they host an NCAA Qualifer (vs. Morehead State) on Saturday, Feb. 17 in the Buell Armory.
 
For the latest on the Kentucky rifle team, follow @UKRifle on Twitter and on the web at UKathletics.com.