Wildcats Win Kentucky Long Rifle Match vs Murray and Morehead

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky won the inaugural Kentucky Long Rifle match on Saturday tallying an eight-shooter aggregate score of 9,356 compared with Murray State’s 9,321 and Morehead State’s 9.232 at Buell Armory and Barker Hall on the UK campus.
 
“I am very excited for the team to have performed the way they did,” UK head coach Harry Mullins said. “I think they are really starting to show themselves they are capable of performing at the level in which they are training. Overall it was a great match to have eight shooters contribute to the team score since all eight counted, which is a bit of an exception in our sport at this level.”
 
The match celebrated the sport at the collegiate level within the Commonwealth, which is the only state in America with three collegiate teams.
 
The competition utilized a unique format aggregating the scores from all eight shooters, instead of the five designated squad members for smallbore and air rifle commonly used within NCAA competition. The scores from the five squad designees were still recorded from the match for NCAA qualifying purposes.

Kentucky, the winning team, was awarded the “Kentucky Long Rifle” trophy, which was expertly hand crafted by world-renowned artisan Greg Dixon over five weeks to honor all the teams involved. The commemorative long rifle was then driven to Kentucky from Pennsylvania by Brenda Dixon – Greg and Brenda are the parents of UK alumnus William Dixon, who was also on hand alongside an impressive array of decorated UK rifle alumni.
 
“This match today meant a lot to the coaches because all three programs take great pride in what we do and how we represent this state,” Kentucky head coach Harry Mullins said. “This feels like just the start of some really cool Kentucky Long Rifle Matches. I can’t thank Greg Dixon enough for spending countless hours working on the trophy.
 
“This commemorative long rifle embodies the passion that these programs and these athletes have, and the direction we are going.”
 
Sophomore Hailee Sigmon had a personal-best day shooting a match-high aggregate 1185, 595 in air rifle and 590 in smallbore.
 
Will Shaner, Cathryn Papasodora and Ruby Gomes each shot aggregate 1174s, and Hanna Carr shot 1173.
 
All three of Shaner, Papasodora and Gomes bettered 590 by some margin in air rifle with Shaner shooting 598, Gomes scoring 596 and Papasodora totaling 593.
 
Richard Clark also bettered 590 in air rifle shooting 592 to go along with a 579 in smallbore for a 1171 aggregate, ninth best in the match.
 
“To have 50 percent of the team at a 592 or above really was nice to see,” Mullins said. “I am also happy for Hailee shooting the 590 in smallbore. I think she can start to see that she is a two-gun shooter and that she can perform at a high level in smallbore as well. Will shooting another 598 and Ruby breaking 596 in air rifle was also key to go along with Cat’s 593.
 
“In the end today was a team effort and I am very proud of them for that. I’m excited to see what this team can accomplish throughout the year.”

The teams also held an international competition-style final at the end of the match with Sigmon, Shaner and Gomes going 1-2-3.

Smallbore report
Kentucky shot 4,635 in smallbore led by Sigmon’s 590. Carr was the next-highest scoring smallbore Wildcat with a 584, while Papasodora and Jason Spaude shot 581s. Clark fired a 579 and Gomes scored 578.
 
Shaner tallied a 576 and Ian Foos totaled 566.

Murray State scored 4,612 and Morehead State tallied 4,561 in smallbore.

Air rifle report
As aforementioned by Mullins, five of Kentucky’s eight squad members bettered 592 in air rifle.
 
Shaner had a match-high 598, Gomes scored 596 (third overall), Sigmon’s 595 was fourth, Papasodora’s 593 was fifth and Clark’s 592 was sixth.

Carr’s 589 was 10th best in the match.
 
Foos scored 581 and Spaude totaled 577.
 
Kentucky totaled 4,721, Murray State scored 4,709 and Morehead State got 4,671 in air rifle.
 
Kentucky NCAA system score
The score from UK’s five squad shooters was a season-best 4718 – 2336 in smallbore and 2382 in air rifle. That score was a point better than The Wildcats’ best score in 2017.
 
Pre-match information
All three teams were ranked in the preseason top-20 with Kentucky and Murray State ranked Nos. 3 and 4 respectively and Morehead coming in a No. 17.
 
Kentucky began the 2018-19 season with a 4686-4635 win at Nebraska last Saturday.

Standings

op Individuals

idual Smallbore Standings

ividual Air Rifle Standings

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For the latest on the Kentucky rifle team, follow @UKrifle on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.