Posted on 10/05/2016 7:45:45 PM PDT by NorthMountain
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University rifle team will begin its quest for a fifth straight NCAA championship this weekend. West Virginia will open the 2016-17 season Sunday against Ohio State in Morgantown.
Coach Jon Hammond hopes it will be one fans will turn out to see. The match will start at 8 a.m. on Sunday inside the rifle range with small bore competition. The air rifle portion will be moved to the indoor track at 1 p.m. and will feature accommodations for spectators to watch the event. It’s the second year WVU has hosted a match in an attempt to accommodate fans.
“It’s a great showcase for the team and for fans to come in and watch a little bit,” Hammond said. “It’s great preparation for the team as well with a range and field very similar to the NCAA championships. The more times our team can shoot in that environment the more prepared they’ll be for March.”
Afterward, the Mountaineers will have a fan fest at the track in which members of the public can meet and interact with team members. There will also be a rare opportunity for the public to actually shoot on the range with the competition rifles.
“I’m sure a lot of people in the stands will have shot rifles before, and hunted and done lots of different types of shooting, but they may not have tried the air rifle shooting we do for NCAA and international competition,” Hammond said. “It’s a great opportunity for them to come down and experience it a little bit and hopefully we’ll have a big turnout.”
The 2016-17 team boasts some stellar shooters anchored by Gold Medal Olympian and defending NCAA smallbore and air rifle individual champion Ginny Thrasher. However, there are only four returning shooters and Thrasher is the only returning team member to have shot in the NCAA championships last season. J.P. Lucas is the lone senior on the team. He’ll be joined by Elizabeth Gratz and Will Anti.
“Those three have a lot of experience, but none of them were able to compete at NCAA Championships last year because we had such a deep team,” Hammond said. “But the strength of having such a deep team is they’re ready to step into that role.”
The fifth shooter whose score will count in competition is still up in the air. It will come from one of three stand out freshmen. Milica Babic of Serbia is an international competitor with a lot of shooting experience on her resume, but Hammond said she will be pressed hard by newcomers Morgan Phillips and Jack Anderson.
“She (Babic) came in with a lot of experience having shot a lot of international competitions with the Serbian Jr. team,” said Hammond. “I certainly see her having a substantial role, but I expect she’s going to push and compete with all of our team members.”
The Mountaineers also picked up some home grown talent this year. Noah Barker of Winfield shot in high school with the Putnam County Gun Club and hopes to continue his development and success at WVU. Hammond expected he’ll red shirt this year, but believes Barker be a valuable member in future years as he develops.
Thresher continues to be in high demand for obligations stemming from her success in Rio. This week she visited the White House for President Obama’s honoring of Team USA. Since returning, Hammond said her training schedule has been somewhat modified just to give her a break, but he sees no animosity or jealousy among team members.
“They treat her like a team member and she wants to be treated that way. She’s still the same person and we still treat her the same way,” the coach explained. “Within the team and the program, I think the one thing Ginny would probably love is to go back and be just a regular team member. I think the other team members are able to see it’s not all glamour. It’s a lot of extra distractions, extra work, and extra time commitments. Most of the team looks at that and says they’re happy to be able to come in shoot ,get studying done, and let things take care of themselves.”
Parking and admission at the WVU indoor track are free for Sunday’s competition and fan fest after the match.
FYI ... Positive news out of WEST Virginia.
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Fantastic. Thanks for the post.
L
Nice!
Go WVU!
EVERY college in the US should have a rifle team, and a pistol team, too.
I think most of the air rifle competition is in the 10 meter distance. The Sporter Air Rifle is intended to be a low cost, entry level rifle without specialized modifications that add to the cost of the rifle. Sporter air rifles must be .177 caliber (4.5 mm) pneumatic, spring air, compressed air or CO2 rifles with a muzzle velocity of 600 fps or less. It's an iron sight (peeps OK) arrangement. No scopes.
If you're really curious, a PDF file with all the rules is located here
Wasn’t all that long ago WVU was dropping the rifle team
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