No. 1 Kentucky Travels to No. 3 West Virginia Saturday

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ranked at the top of the national poll for the third consecutive week, the No. 1 University of Kentucky rife team will travel to Morgantown, West Virginia on Saturday to compete against the No. 3 West Virginia Mountaineers at the WVU Shell Building. The match will begin at 10 a.m. ET and admission is free to the public.
 
The Wildcats are coming off a bye week after defeating Memphis last weekend in Lexington with a 2343 score in smallbore and a 2381 in air rifle to post an aggregate score of 4724. Kentucky had the top four individuals in the meet, including freshman Mary Tucker, sophomore Will Shaner, junior Hailee Sigmon and freshman Jaden Thompson. Tucker, who recently made the 2020 United States Olympic Team, led UK in both smallbore (595) and air rifle (598) to post with an aggregate of 1193. Shaner, a sophomore who also qualified the 2020 Olympics, was right behind her with a score of 588 in smallbore, 596 air rifle and an aggregate of 1184.
 
Tucker leads the team with an aggregate average of 1187.909, while Shaner is slightly behind her with an aggregate of 1182.909. Sigmon averages 1170.904, sophomore Richard Clark has an average of 1167.182 and sophomore Ruby Gomes averages 1165.819. Thompson (1162.636), freshman Emmie Sellers (1158.867), sophomore Mitchell Nelson (1154.2), freshman Mason Hamilton (1147.301), junior Mason Joachim (1146.95) and senior Ian Foos (1146.409) are also contributing to the Wildcats’ success this season. Kentucky scored its highest output of the season at Army with an school-record aggregate score of 4734.
 
West Virginia enters the match with a smallbore average of 2336.11 while it averages 2373 in air rifle for an aggregate average of 4709.11. After Saturday’s away match, the Wildcats will host the NCAA Qualifier on Saturday, Feb 22.
 
This season’s GARC Championships will be in Memphis, Tennessee, on Feb. 28-29. Kentucky will play host to the 2020 NCAA Championships in Memorial Coliseum on March 13-14. Tickets are available online at UKAthletics.com/NCAARifle.
 
For the latest on the Kentucky rifle team, follow @UKRifle on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.