Rifle Set for NCAA Championships Friday-Saturday
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After an impressive regular season that included a share of the Great America Rifle Conference Regular-Season Championship, the University of Kentucky rifle team is set to begin the 2021 NCAA Rifle Championships this weekend inside Converse Hall in Columbus, Ohio.
The events will begin Friday with three-position smallbore, followed by Saturday’s air rifle competition. An individual champion will be crowned each day with the team titles handed out Saturday following air rifle. Live targets are available through megalink, while the NCAA will keep track of all scores here.
“Postseason is always an exciting time,” UK head coach Harry Mullins said. “This team has made the whole year a lot of fun and brought a lot of energy to the range. I am so proud of them for that. They have put in a tremendous amount of work this year. I am looking forward to see what the future brings for this group.”
This is the 27th appearance all time for Kentucky in the NCAA Championships. Kentucky, which is currently ranked second nationally and were regular-season GARC Co-Champions, has won the national title twice – 2011 and 2018 – with six runner-up finishes.
UK qualified for the event after a strong NCAA qualifying score of 4731. Each team’s three score aggregate average – the score based on each team’s highest three regular season scores fired at three different locations – was already recorded prior to the qualifying score. The NCAA qualifier score was then added to that average and Kentucky along with Air Force, Alaska Fairbanks, Memphis, Nebraska, Ole Miss, TCU and West Virginia had the eight highest combined scores, thus qualifying for the NCAA Championship.
UK’s three scores it counted as part of its NCAA Qualifying score were its school-record 4735 at Murray State on November 7, an impressive 4734 fired vs. Nebraska inside the UK Rifle Range on Jan. 22 and its 4713 team scored at Ole Miss on Jan. 18. Those three scores averaged together for a 4724.33 plus UK’s 4731 NCAA qualifying mark gave UK a total mark of 9458.33. That total is the highest NCAA qualifying mark in the nation.
Sophomore Mary Tucker leads Kentucky this season by averaging a 592.273 in smallbore, 597.909 in air rifle and 1190.182 aggregate. Tucker took home the smallbore and overall gold medal at this year’s GARC Championships. Junior Will Shaner is averaging a 589.455 in smallbore, 595.545 in air rifle and 1185.000 aggregate. Tucker and Shaner are two of three shooters in the nation to score 595 in smallbore this season, while Tucker is one of three shooters with a perfect 600 in air rifle this year.
Junior Richard Clark is averaging a 581.182 in smallbore, 589.818 in air rifle and 1171.000 overall. Senior Hailee Sigmon is averaging 578.2 in smallbore, 588 in air rifle and a 1166.2 overall, while sophomore Jaden Thompson is earning a 576.636 in smallbore, 591.091 in air rifle and an aggregate of 1167.727 overall.
For more information on the Kentucky rifle team, visit UKathletics.com or follow UKRifle on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
