Jan. 14, 2014

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Former Kentucky rifle standout Henri Junghänel won the 2013 International Shooting Sports Federation Shooter of the Year award with Jessica Rossi, elected by members of the ISSF Athletes Committee, ISSF Coaches Advisory Committee and a panel of international sports journalists.

“We are really excited for Henri,” UK head coach Harry Mullins said. “He earned every bit of this award and it’s great seeing all this hard work pay off for him. We love that he’s gone on and continued to succeed after he had such a great career at Kentucky and are privileged to have such a good ambassador for our program.”

Junghänel took the award with 83 points, nearly 20 points more than runner-up Haoran Yang of China.

The Breuberg, Germany, native took numerous gold medals en route to winning the prestigious award, including two gold medals at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon as he claimed victory in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions and the 50m Rifle Prone events.

At the ISSF World Cup in Granada, Junghänel took bronze in the 50m Rifle Prone event and won the 50m Rifle Pone event in Munich by delivering the best possible finish at the 2013 ISSF World Cup Final, a 211.2.

Junghänel led Kentucky to a second-place finish at the 2013 NCAA Championships, while winning the silver medal in smallbore and finishing seventh overall in air rifle.

The senior delivered a record-breaking performance early in the 2012-13 season in a win over No. 4 Army. Junghänel set the program records for individual aggregate score (1186) and individual smallbore score (592).

With Junghänel leading the team in smallbore and air rifle scoring average, Kentucky claimed its sixth Great America Rifle Conference regular-season title in 2013, and third in as many years. Junghänel boasted a 588.3 scoring average in smallbore and 592.9 in air rifle.