Rifle Signs Four Shooting Stars for 2026-27
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky rifle program signed four star athletes this week as part of National Signing Day, announcing that Noah Abzug, Maggie Palfrey, Iva Rakonjac and Briley Sralla will be joining the program for the 2026-27 season.
“We are very excited to welcome Noah, Maggie, Iva and Briley to Big Blue Nation,” said UK head coach Harry Mullins. “Coach Papasodora and I think these four are the perfect fit for our program and the standard that we have set here at Kentucky. We are excited to continue to get to know them before we welcome them officially to campus next year.”
Abzug, Palfrey, Rakonjac and Sralla will join the Wildcats for the 2026-27 competitive year. The Wildcats will lose four seniors at the conclusion of 2025-26 in Sofia Ceccarello, Martin Voss, AJ Hotko and Brandon Evans.
More on each signee is available below.
Noah Abzug
An impressive junior shooter from Monkton, Maryland, Abzug will join the Wildcats with a strong list of accomplishments. Recently, he finished 26th in smallbore at the 2025 Rifle and Pistol Junior Olympic Championships, which had a stacked competitors list with current UK stars Braden Peiser and Sam Adkins finishing in the top 10. At the 2023 NRA National Junior Sectional, he finished tied for 20th in the intermediate junior category in air rifle. Earlier this year he was one of 29 youth shooters in the nation invited to the America Legion’s Junior 3-Position Air Rifle National Championship. Abzug competes for the Seitzland Rifle Club.
Maggie Palfrey
Palfrey will join the Wildcats after recently winning the CMP National Air Rifle Championships, edging out future teammate and fellow signee Sralla. Palfrey is considered one of the top junior shooters in the nation and earlier this week while competing for The Pittsburgh and Suburban Rifle League, she earned high individual, high woman, and high junior scores in the team’s tri-match victory. In May of this year, she was crowned the NRA National Junior Sectional Smallbore National Champion after an impressive 584 score at the event. Palfrey has led her club team to several state and national championships and has earned multiple perfect 300 scores throughout her junior career.
Iva Rakonjac
Rakonjac will come to Kentucky from Serbia, where she has had a lot of success in international competition. Recently, she competed in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany where she finished 43rd in 50m women’s three-position smallbore and 65th in 10m women’s air rifle. At the 2025 European Championships in Osijek, Croatia, she finished fourth in 10m air rifle mixed team junior and 15th in 10m women’s air rifle junior. She also competed in the 2024 European Championships and finished 11th in 10m women’s air rifle junior and 51st in 50m three-position women’s smallbore junior. She helped Serbia win bronze in team air rifle at the 2025 European Championships.
Briley Sralla
Sralla is a successful junior shooter from Johnson City, Texas, where she has shined on the state and national stage throughout her career. Recently, she finished third at the Civilian Marksmanship Program National Smallbore and Air Rifle Championships in air rifle. Shooting for Texas Hill Country, Sralla has helped the team win a national championship eight times and in 2024 she finished second overall at the national championships in the 17-and-under division. Other honors for Sralla include the gold medal in air rifle and silver medal in smallbore at the 2022 National Rifle Junior Olympics in the under 15 category.
