West Virginia is hosting the NCAA Rifle Championships for the second time in program history and is seeking their 20th national championship in the process.
Day one of the two-day event was held on Friday at the WVU Coliseum, and so far, the Mountaineers sit in first place after the smallbore competition of the championships. In addition, WVU’s Mary Tucker brought home the smallbore individual title on day one.
In the smallbore competition of the NCAA Rifle Championships, West Virginia finished with an aggregate score of 2353. TCU finished second place six points behind at 2347. Kentucky was third with 2338 as their aggregate score after day one.
Mary Tucker paced all Mountaineers with a season-high aggregate score of 596. She qualified for the individual championships in smallbore and after being last place at one point, she rallied to become the individual national champion in smallbore with a score of 462.0.
During the standing portion of smallbore team competition, Tucker finished with a perfect score of 200. Gavin Barnick had a perfect score of 200 himself during the prone portion of the smallbore competition.
Griffin Lake was second in the smallbore competition with an aggregate score of 587. Gavin Barnick, Molly McGhin, and Matt Sanchez all finished right behind him at 585 apiece.
Day two of the 2024 NCAA Rifle Championships is set for tomorrow, March 9 at the WVU Coliseum. Competition begins at 9 a.m., and the championships are available to watch for free on the NCAA website.
Photo courtesy of WVU Athletics
