Rifle
March 6, 2019 - 08:13 PM

UK Rifle Set for 2019 NCAA Championships

by Jake Most

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Kentucky rifle team will make its 19th consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships this weekend inside WVU Coliseum.

The championship will be held March 8-9 with West Virginia as hosts.

Gates will open both days at 8:30 a.m.

On Friday, the first smallbore relay competitors will take to the range at 9:45 a.m., and the second relay will follow at 12:30 p.m. A smallbore final featuring the top-eight athletes will begin at 3:30 p.m.

The air rifle competition will start on Saturday at 10 a.m., with the second relay scheduled for noon. An eight-athlete final will begin at 2:30 p.m., and an award ceremony will immediately follow.

Tickets for the championships are on sale now at NCAA.com/tickets. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for youth 18 and under and $5 for groups of 10 or more.

All tickets are general admission. Additionally, tickets are valid all-day, allowing fans to leave the facility and re-enter as needed.

The Wildcats won the NCAA Team Championship a year ago, and this year qualified for the season-ending competition again as one of eight team qualifiers. for the 2019 season Tuesday and earned the No. 2-seed.

UK reached the NCAA Championships for the 25th time. The Wildcats have won the national title twice — last year and in 2011, and UK has six runner-up finishes.

The top eight teams in both 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.

UK’s three-score average was 4704.33, and added to UK’s 4707 three weeks ago during the qualifying weekend gave UK’s NCAA qualifying score aggregate of 9411.33.

Kentucky (11-1, 7-1 Great American Rifle Conference) finished second in the GARC regular-season standings. The Wildcats finished third at the GARC Championships two weeks ago.

The events for the 2019 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Rifle Championships will be individual smallbore rifle three-position (60 shots) and air rifle (60 shots), with individual finals in each event, team smallbore rifle three-position and team air rifle.