No. 3 Rifle Earns Two School Records in Win at Murray State
MURRAY, Ky. – The first road test for the No. 3 University of Kentucky rifle team was no problem Saturday as the Wildcats secured a school-record smallbore team score and school-record overall team aggregate score en route to a 4735-4621 victory over Murray State inside the Pat Spurgin Rifle Range.
The match started with the Wildcats setting the tone in smallbore, scoring a school-record 2358 in the discipline. Last season, the Wildcats’ top smallbore score was 2344. Kentucky then secured the win in the match with a 2377 in air rifle, earning a school-record 4735 aggregate team score. The overall team scored bested UK’s previous school-record score of 4734 earned last season at Army on Jan. 19. Kentucky’s 4735 team score Saturday is the best in the nation this season by five points while the impressive smallbore score is the second-highest in the nation this season.
“I was really proud of the way that the whole group battled for points today,” said UK head coach Harry Mullins. “You can see some of the things they have been working on start to take hold and that is always exciting to see. Mary and Will had good days today and so did Richard and Hailee in smallbore. I am excited for the group to see their work starting to come together. It was great to watch them battle.”
Junior Will Shaner was the star for the Wildcats in smallbore, scoring a 595 in the discipline while sophomore Mary Tucker earned a 590. The smallbore score for Shaner was a career best, while Tucker has earned a 590 or above in smallbore in three of UK’s four matches this season. Senior Hailee Sigmon scored a 587 in the discipline while junior Richard Clark earned a 586. Fellow junior Mitchell Nelson scored a 579 in smallbore while sophomores Mason Hamilton and Jaden Thompson, scored a 574 and 562, respectively.
Tucker was Kentucky’s leader in air rifle at the match, scoring a career-high tying 599 for the second-straight match. Tucker has scored a 594 or better in air rifle in each of UK’s matches this season. All told, four Wildcats scored a 590 or better in air rifle. Shaner was second overall with a 596 in the discipline and took the overall individual title with a total aggregate of 1191. Clark and Thompson earned a 591 in air rifle, while sophomore Emmie Sellers scored a 589. Junior Mason Joachim earned a 582 while Hamilton scored a 569.
Murray State scored a 2293 in smallbore and 2328 in air rifle for an aggregate score of 4621. Abby Zinsmeyer was the leading Racer with a 1160 aggregate score, earning a 578 in smallbore and 582 in air rifle. Emily Endecott scored a 574 in smallbore and 580 in air rifle.
Kentucky (5-0) will be back in action next weekend when it hosts the annual Kentucky Long Rifle Match inside the Barker Hall Rifle Range. Both Morehead State and Murray State will be on campus to compete against the Wildcats. The match brings together the three NCAA Division I rifle programs from Kentucky. Kentucky is the only state in the country with three collegiate teams.
The match will utilize a unique format aggregating the scores from seven 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 will still be recorded from this match for NCAA qualifying purposes.
The winning team will be awarded the “Kentucky Long Rifle” trophy, which has been hand engraved to honor all the teams involved.
For the latest on the Kentucky rifle team, follow @UKRifle on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
