Nov. 23, 2002

The University of Kentucky Rifle Cats suffered their second loss of the season to Alaska-Fairbanks, 6301-6183 on Saturday Nov. 23 at the Buell Armory in Lexington. Kentucky also dropped a match to the four-time defending NCAA Champion Nanooks on November 3 in Fairbanks, Alaska. The 6301 score by Alaska-Fairbanks sets a UK regular season opponent scoring record.

Bradley Wheeldon, a junior from Eubank, Ky., continued his solid performance for Kentucky, leading the Rifle Cats in both the smallbore and air rifle portions of the match. Wheeldon fired a 1171 in smallbore followed by an impressive 394 in air rifle. Freshman Vicki Goss also turned in a fine performance, scoring 1168 in smallbore and 390 in air rifle.

Despite the loss, Kentucky Rifle Coach Harry Mullins feels good about the team’s chances when the Rifle Cats resume competition in January.

“I thought we did pretty well, despite the loss,” Mullins said. “We raised our score from last week and that’s a good way to close out the semester. We’ll change some things over Christmas break, and we’ll get even better as the season progresses.”

Kentucky drops to 4-5 overall but remains 1-3 in the Great American Rifle Conference. The Rifle Cats will resume competition January 18, 2003 at home against the Xavier Musketeers.

AGATE:

Kentucky         Prone Standing Kneeling Total Air Rifle TotalBradley Wheeldon  392     386      393    1171    394     1565Jeff Hamberg      396     364      385    1145            1145Melody Cook       394     374      383    1151    385     1536Vicki Goss        393     381      394    1168    390     1558Crystal Hamilton                                  379      379Total            1575    1504     1555    4635   1548     6183

Alaska-Fairbanks Prone Standing Kneeling Total Air Rifle TotalMatt Emmons 398 395 399 1192 393 1585Jaime Beyerle 396 389 399 1184 392 1576Per Sandberg 396 389 392 1177 398 1575Karl Olsson 398 386 392 1176 389 1565Total 1588 1558 1582 4729 1572 6301