No. 3 UK Rifle Travels to NCAA Championships
AKRON,
Ohio – One of eight teams to qualify, the third-ranked Kentucky rifle team will
compete at the NCAA Championships this weekend, which will be held at the Louis
& Freda Stile Athletics Field House on the University of Akron campus.
“The
expectations for our program are always to be competing at the top, but as a
coach sometimes you have to realize we’ve been able go to this event all the
time,” head coach Harry Mullins said. “This is a fairly new bunch of
individuals. We have (juniors) Sonya (May) and Heather (Kirby) who have been to
the NCAA Championships twice before. I think they understand the atmosphere and
the expectations of the program.
“Then
we’re going into this with three freshmen: Hanna (Carr), Cathryn (Papasodora)
and Carmen (Fry). We will try to maintain our composure as far as being able to
work within the atmosphere. That will be a key component to our strategy to
attain success.”
The
Wildcats have qualified for the NCAA Championships every season since 2001. UK
finished sixth in the championships last year after placing third in 2014,
second in 2012 and 2013, and winning the title in 2011.
The
top eight teams in both the smallbore three-position and air rifle events were
selected based on the average of the three highest regular-season aggregate
scores with no more than one match at any given site. The average of the three
highest scores was added to the aggregate scores from the designated qualifiers
to determine the top eight teams.
A
total of 48 competitors will compete in the championships, with 40 competitors
coming from the top eight teams selected. The remaining eight competitors were
selected based on the scores submitted from the designated qualifier.
Smallbore
competition is set for Friday at 10:15 a.m. ET to kick off the
championships. Air rifle will commence at 10:15 a.m. ET on Saturday with finals taking place at 2 p.m.
The
overall team champion will be determined by combining the smallbore and air
rifle team total scores into one aggregate for each team.
“I
think overall the team has worked hard this year, Mullins said. “Seeing
what we’ve seen the past few days in training and even leading up to the
Conference Championships, some things are starting to fall into place. We’re
hoping we did our job the right was so we peak at the right time to get the
results we wanted. On the work ethic end of it I think this group has put in a
tremendous amount of work over the course of the season.”
This
season, Kentucky‘s average aggregate score is 4679, with a 2316 smallbore
average and a 2362 air rifle average.
UK’s
season-high score, 4703, came at the Akron Invitational at the Stile Field
House, where the championships are being hosted.
The
Wildcats’ season-high air rifle score of 2370 came on Oct. 17 in a win over
Murray State, while the season-high smallbore performance, 2336, came at home
on Jan. 30 in tri-match win over Murray State and Memphis.
