West Virginia Wins Conference Rifle Title

West Virginia Wins Conference RifleTitle

West Virginia recorded its 13th Great American Rifle Conference Championship, and ninth in a row, with a 4699 aggregate score on Sunday. The Mountaineers bested Kentucky (4686) by 13 and Navy (4663) by 36 to earn the title.

WVU came into the day with a 14-point lead gained in smallbore. Kentucky made up one of those points by edging WVU by one point to take the air rifle title (2367-2366) but that was not enough to make up the overall deficit.

Final Results

West Virginia’s Ginny Thrasher took an individual double, winning both the smallbore and air rifle individual titles. Teammate Morgan Phillips was second in both individual events. WVU’s Sarah Osborn, who was not a a counter in the team air rifle, recorded a 593 and finished fifth in the individual final.

Thrasher (595) , Phillips (592), Elizabeth Gratz (590) and Will Anti (589) posted WVU’s counting scores on the day, with David Koenders score of 589 dropped as the lowest of the five designated team members. In addition to Osborn, Noah Barker posted a 589 and Jack Anderson a 579 for WVU.

West Virginia will now prepare for the NCAA Championships, which begin on Friday, Mar. 9, on the campus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.  WVU will be back to full strength for that competition, as Milica Babic, who missed the GARCs to compete in the European Championships, will be back with the team.