OXFORD, Miss. — After toppling Memphis and Ole Miss during competition on Friday, the Kentucky rifle team suffered its first conference loss in 700 days, falling at the hands of Army, 4671-4632, on Sunday at the Patricia C. Lamar National Guard Readiness Center.
?This is the first loss we have had in conference play in almost two years,? Kentucky head coach Harry Mullins said. ?We had some good performances from several individuals throughout the weekend, but we just came up short on Sunday against Army. Army is one of the top two teams in the nation and we just didn?t get the kind of scores we needed to beat such a good team.?
Kentucky?s last Great American Rifle Conference defeat came during the 2005-06 GARC Championships, Feb. 27, 2006. Since that time, UK rolled through the league in 2006-07, claiming the GARC regular season and tournament championship without a blemish. UK had defeated the two-time defending NCAA Champion Alaska-Fairbanks early during the fall season, before suffering its first loss in over a year, at the hands of non-conference foe TCU, to close out the fall season.
On Friday, Kentucky posted a 4633 total score, good enough to beat host Ole Miss (4551) and Memphis (4530). Tom Csenge carried the way for the Wildcats, posting team-high scores in both air rifle (588) and smallbore (582). Jen Pason, the 2006 GARC Rookie of the Year, finished with a 584 in air rifle and a 575 smallbore. Sophomore Leslie Angeli posted a career day in both guns, finishing with a 585 air rifle total and a solid 572 smallbore score.
?The hard work has really started to pay off for Leslie she had a real solid performance Friday and has been working really hard,? Mullins detailed. ?She finished third overall with solid output in both guns. I think that is just scratching the surface of her potential and that in upcoming matches we will see some really good things from her. She is one of the hardest workers on the team and I was very happy for her.?
After a day of competition on Saturday that did not include UK, the Wildcats returned to action on Sunday seeking to secure the regular season conference title with a win over the powerhouse Army squad, featuring arguably the nation?s top shooter, senior Chris Abalo. Despite Andrew Roland?s personal-best and match high 587 smallbore score, UK could not get by match-high air rifle scores from Abalo (592) and Stephen Scherer (594). Csenge finished with a team-high air rifle score of 591, third best in the match. Entering competition Sunday, UK had claimed two of the past three meetings between the two national rifle powers.
?Tom had a good day against Army and Andrew Roland had a personal best, which leaves me real proud of both of those two,? Mullins said. ?We really need to get back as a team to shooting some good smallbore numbers. Our training has been going well, yet when we get into the matches it seems that we loose a bit of the edge that we need to get solid shots. We are shooting real close, just not getting them to go in all the way. Our team has been working very hard and you can see that in the matches, we just need to get the whole team clicking on the right cylinders.?
