MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (March 13, 2025) – The No. 2-seeded West Virginia University rifle team looks to capture its nation-best 20th national championship this weekend, as the Mountaineers get set to conclude their season at the 2025 NCAA Rifle Championships from March 14-15, in Morgantown.
This year’s championships are being hosted by Kentucky in Lexington. Each day of action is set to begin at 8:45 a.m. ET with the call to line, from inside the Historic Memorial Coliseum. A live stream for both relays will be available on NCAA.com. Additionally, live stats and targets can be found on WVUsports.com.
Friday opens with two smallbore relays, followed by the individual finals at 2:30 p.m. ET. Saturday wraps up the competition with two air rifle relays, followed by individual finals at 2 p.m. ET.
The Mountaineers qualified as the field’s second-ranked team with a qualifying mark of 9496. Joining WVU at this year’s championships are No. 1 Alaska Fairbanks, No. 3 Kentucky. No. 4 TCU, No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 6 Murray State, No. 7 Georgia Southern and No. 8 Air Force.
West Virginia last won an NCAA championship in 2017. Prior to that, WVU captured five consecutive national titles from 2013-17. There have been 44 NCAA National Championships with WVU winning or finishing runner-up 29 times at the season ending event.
Hammond has helped the Mountaineers hoist six national championships during his first 18 seasons with the team. Additionally, West Virginia boasts 30 individual NCAA champions in program history, with the most recent being Gavin Barnick (air rifle) and Mary Tucker (smallbore) in 2024.
This season, the Mountaineers have shot a team score 4730 or better 14 times, the most in a single season since 2023-24 (10). WVU’s season-high score of 4756, came recently against Ohio State on Jan. 25.
The Mountaineers are looking to close out the season with the program’s 20th NCAA Rifle National Championship. The Mountaineers swept both the Great America Rifle Conference Tournament and Regular Season titles for the second straight season.
West Virginia’s roster features three student-athletes who have hit perfect 600s in air rifle during their collegiate careers in Gavin Barnick, Natalie Perrin and Lauri Syrja are three of 10 Mountaineers all-time to accomplish the feat.
WVU enters the 2024 NCAA Championships with a team scoring average of 4742.6 in aggregate, a smallbore mark of 2355.8 and an air rifle average of 2386.7. All three averages are the second best in the nation.
Press release and photo courtesy of WVU Athletics.
