No. 3 Rifle Hits Road, Faces No. 8 Murray State Saturday
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Looking to continue its strong start to the 2020-21 season with four wins in virtual and in-person home matches, the No. 3 University of Kentucky rifle team will hit the road for the first time this season as it competes Saturday at No. 8 Murray State,.
The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET inside the Pat Spurgin Rifle Range and live targets will be available online. The Wildcats were originally scheduled to compete at Ole Miss this weekend, but that match was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
“We are excited to get to travel even though it is not our original destination,” said UK head coach Harry Mullins. “Getting to perform on the road is always challenging since you are going to a different environment, but I think our group is looking forward to the challenge of testing ourselves away from home. We have seen some good things in training and now we are working on converting that to matches.”
Kentucky (4-0) is coming off its first in-person match of the season last weekend. The Wildcats defeated No. 8 NC State, 4709-4656 inside the UK Rifle Range. All nine Wildcats competed in the match and were separated into two relays. Kentucky won both disciplines, scoring a 2340 in smallbore and a 2369 in air rifle.
Sophomore Mary Tucker was the top performer at the match, scoring a 592 in smallbore and 599 in air rifle, which was a season high in the discipline and tied a career high. The impressive mark gave Tucker an aggregate score of 1191, which was just two off her career best aggregate of 1193. Junior Will Shaner was right behind Tucker, finishing second overall at the match with a 1188 overall score. Shaner scored a 590 in smallbore and a 598 in air rifle. So far this season, Tucker and Shaner have each scored 590 or better in air rifle in all three of UK’s matches.
Murray State is ranked No. 8 in the latest Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association Top 20. The racers have won all three matches they have competed in this season. After starting the year with a 4674 against Morehead State, the Racers scored a 4669 against UT Martin and then defeated NC State with a 4671. The Racers will also compete against Jacksonville State on Saturday.
Matias Kiuru is leading the Racers with an average aggregate this season of 1176.333, earning a 584.333 smallbore average and 592 air rifle average. Dana Buesseier and Anna Scheer are each averaging an aggregate of 1163.667 this season.
For the latest on the Kentucky rifle team, follow @UKRifle on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
