No. 5 UK Rifle Set for Top-10 Showdown with Ohio State
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The fifth-ranked Kentucky rifle team will finally face the last test of its six-match road stretch in a meeting on Sunday at No. 6 Ohio State. The match is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET inside the Lt. Hugh W. Wylie Range.
Ohio State will provide live targets.
In its last outing, the Withrow Invitational, the Wildcats placed second of the nine teams in the field – improving their record to 20-4 on the season.
Ohio State enters Sunday’s match coming off a record-breaking performance at TCU where the Buckeyes bested their former aggregate record (4685) by 13 points that they shot at last season’s NCAA Qualifier.
The two teams met twice last year. The first came in the regular season at Akron’s NCAA Preview Match, where the Wildcats finished in first place (4703) after they shot their first of two scores above 4700s that bested those of the other eight top-10 teams in the field. Ohio State scored 4670. The second meeting was the NCAA Championships. UK scored 4669 to Ohio State’s 4659.
Heather Kirby, a Shelbyville, Kentucky, native, has been consistent with her performance throughout the season and has helped pave the way for UK. The senior enters the match ranked sixth nationally in air rifle average at a solid 594.5, and leads the team in aggregate average with 1171.4, which ranks sixteenth nationally. Kirby set a career-high in air rifle this season with a 598 in November during a match with Nebraska in Lexington.
Sophomore Hanna Carr, a Versailles, Kentucky, product, currently rounds out the top ten of the national smallbore average rankings and leads UK with a 582.7 – just seven points shy of the leading national average. Her best smallbore performance this season (590), which is four points from the highest score shot in the discipline this season, came in a home match with Army.
Billy Azzinaro fired a 598 in air rifle, which is one point shy of the national leader, during the same match that Carr shot 590. The junior ranks second on the team in both air rifle average (589.8) and smallbore average, and third on the team in aggregate score.
Jason Spaude, a sophomore from Saginaw, Michigan, has been somewhat of an X-factor for UK in multiple matches this season. In the Wildcats’ final weekend of fall competition, Spaude emerged as one of the driving forces behind a UK victory over then-No-12-ranked NC State. It was a career day for Spaude. He set a new personal record in air rifle after he fired a 591, which was the second-best score on the team for the match, and finished one point shy of his career-best smallbore score (581) for the second time this season.
—
The most up-to-date coverage of the Kentucky rifle team is available via @UKRifle handles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and at UKathletics.com.
