LEXINGTON ? The Kentucky rifle team?s upperclassmen scored a tough 5-3 victory over the freshmen this past weekend in the Freshman Challenge Intrasquad meet.
There were eight head-to-head matches ? four in smallbore and four in air rifle ? with each of the eight being worth one point. Each freshman competed in both events while the upperclassmen competed in one event each.
The outstanding effort by the freshman came against a Kentucky squad that has finished in the top three of the NCAA in seven of the past 10 years and has been a national runner-up twice in the past three years.
?I thought the freshman did very well,? said coach Harry Mullins. ?They hung in there and didn?t falter under pressure. It?s important for me to see how the people are performing under pressure when things are really on the line.?
Shooting a half course, the meet began with four tightly contested smallbore matches in which each squad won two events.
Senior All-American Jeff Hamberg held off an excellent effort by newcomer Ray Geyer and Justin Rinker outshot Jake Savitts for the upperclassmen?s two victories.
Freshman Kristi Crenwelge, who was 2-0 on the day, rallied for a victory over Eric Surber in the kneeling portion of their smallbore match. Her victory, combined with Chris Boggs win over TJ Harris deadlocked the match at 2-2 entering the four air rifle matches.
Only one of the final four matches came down to the final shots. Geyer fell one point shy of junior All-American Vicki Goss as the upperclassmen sealed the victory. The two put on a stellar exhibition in the final stages of the highly contested match.
?You could really see the enthusiasm of the whole team,? Mullins said. ?Even though they were paired against each other, everyone was pulling for each other. Ray had a 90 going on the last target, everyone would have liked to see him shoot 100, but it worked out good for the upperclassmen.?
Crenwelge tallied her air rifle victory over Brad Donoho while upperclassmen Jared Rinker and Amy Sowash beat Savitts and Boggs, respectively, for a 5-3 final margin.
?The great part about this weekend wasn?t in our top shooters. It was in the fact that everyone else moved up from last week. Hopefully in the next two or three months, this team will really gel together and move forward as a group. We?re getting to the point where there are more people competing for one of the top four spots,? Mullins noted.
The Kentucky rifle team begins its 2004-05 season on Oct. 9 when it travels to West Point, N.Y., for a match with Army.
