UK Rifle's Sigmon Ready to Build on Impressive Freshman Campaign

Hailee Sigmon arrived on the University of Kentucky campus last fall with few expectations. Little did she know that, by the end of her freshman season, she would be a key part of the 2018 NCAA Rifle Champions.

Sigmon came to UK from tiny Kiowa, Colorado (population 742), so adjusting to a larger city, in addition to a campus with more than 30,000 students, was a challenge at times for her, especially when she was not in UK’s shooting rotation at the beginning of the year.

“I’ve never been the type of person to just sit on the sidelines and not contribute,” Sigmon said. “So last year, when I came in, I was behind, I had lower scores than most of the people on the team. But I took it as an opportunity to grow and learn. My goal the whole year was to make the NCAA team.”

In fact, it wasn’t until Sigmon went home for the holidays that she was able to reset and tap into her immense potential.

“I started out pretty rough, I missed my hometown and I was struggling to try to manage everything at one time,” Sigmon said. “But over Christmas break, I took my gear home with me and I started from the ground up. Once I did that, I reset everything. When I came back, I was able to perfect the little things I worked on over break and it made me flourish. It was ridiculous how much I improved.”

What was specifically involoved in Sigmon’s reset?

“I literally took off all my gear and started with nothing,” Sigmon said. “I completely started with nothing and re-did it all over break. And it reassured me that I knew what I was doing.”

UK head coach Harry Mullins has seen student-athletes reset before.

“Some do it physically, some do it mentally,” Mullins said. “From the time you’re 18 until the time you’re 22, minds change, bodies change.”

Mullins said that Sigmon’s goals brought her to the reset.

“I think the biggest part was, for Hailee, she embraced the culture but because she is a competitor, she realized she wasn’t getting where she wanted to go and she made that adjustment rather than just going through the motions,” Mullins said.

SIgmon, who is majoring in agriculture education, was also able to take advantage of her surroundings, especially when it came to her improvement.

“I came from a small town where not a lot of people were competitive shooters,” she said. “I used to travel and hour and a half to shoot. Now, I can walk right down the street and I was at my home range. The amount of time I got to shoot increased a lot, but I also got a lot more knowledge when I got here.”

The reset, the ability to practice and the knowledge gained from the coaches all propelled Sigmon into the national spotlight, where her star seemed to shine even brighter. In fact, Sigmon’s season-high in smallbore (582) came in the NCAA Championship, where she also shot a 595 in air rifle.

Now, Sigmon is one of three returnees (along with Cathryn Papasodora and Hanna Carr) who will help Kentucky defend its national championship. Sigmon likes where this year’s team is at this point.

“I’m really excited,” Sigmon said. “We’re all shooting really good in practice. It’s cool to see how much we have improved.”

And after her reset and resurgence from last season, Sigmon certainly knows about improvement.