AIR RIFLE PUSHES RIFLE TO CRUCIAL GARC WIN OVER WVU
Wildcats Edge Mountaineers in the Match of the Two Remaining Undefeated GARC Teams
MORGANTOWN,
W.Va. -- Behind a dynamic air rifle performance, the Kentucky rifle
team posted a 4680-4650 win over West Virginia in a matchup of the only
two undefeated teams in the conference play, on Friday at WVU Rifle
Range. Kentucky (10-1, 5-0 Great American Rifle
Conference) now is guaranteed a share of the 2011-12 GARC
regular-season championship and now owns the tiebreaker over West
Virginia. UK concludes its regular season on Saturday in Morgantown,
facing N.C. State. A win over N.C. State on Saturday would secure the
seventh conference title in UK rifle history and the Wildcats second
consecutive unbeaten conference season.” “It is exciting,”
UK head coach Harry Mullins said about clinching a share of the
regular-season conference title. “To win this conference match is
great, especially facing such a great program in West Virginia. But I
don’t think anyone on this team is focused on (clinching the
regular-season championship) or looking into that detail now. Everyone
is focused on coming out tomorrow and putting on another team effort to
finish the season 6-0 in conference play.” West Virginia
joined UK as one of the only two undefeated teams remaining in
conference play entering the match. In a showdown of the top teams in
the league, the Wildcats posted a 30-point win over the Mountaineers. “Overall
it was a good performance,” Mullins said. “To come away with a win on
the road against a great team is great. Our first team hadn’t competed
in two weeks and they had to come out with the pressure on at a tough
opponent’s range. We made some mistakes but I was happy with how the
team worked. They really brought the effort and intensity to get the
win. These matches with WVU have always been good, sometimes it will be
a high scoring match and sometimes the teams have down scoring outputs.
There is a huge sense of competition in this matchup every year.” UK,
the defending NCAA Champions, won on the strength of its air rifle
performance, as Ethan Settlemires posted a team-leading 593, with Henri
Junghänel and Emily Holsopple following with a 591. Heather Greathouse
charted a 590 and Stacy Wheatley finished with a 589. The
Wildcats finished the smallbore portion with a 2315 team score, led by
a 580 by Junghänel, who had a 580. Emily Holsopple and Greathouse each
had a 579, with Settlemires (577) and Wheatley (574) rounding out the
starting lineup. “Our smallbore scores were down a bit and
we wanted them to be higher but we are excited to get back out
tomorrow,” Mullins said. “For the team to respond after some down
scores to start the match in smallbore shows their resilience. They
stayed through their shot plans. They worked their tails off throughout
the match and finished strong in air rifle.” Kentucky
traveled its full roster to Morgantown, with Elijah Ellis leading the
second squad with a 579 in smallbore. James Jasis (575), Katie Fretts
(574), Jonathan Pinker (574), Ed Ryznar (570), Ethan Marne (567), Cody
Manning (553) and John Sutton (553) rounding out the smallbore
competitors. “Our second relay was great, (Katie Fretts)
Frettsy and (Elijah) Ellis really shot well, along with (Jonathan)
Pinkel and James (Jasis),” Mullins said. “Overall it was a good team
effort and that is the thing I like the most. It isn’t one or two
people having huge scores or carrying the team, it is a huge team
effort every day.” In air rifle, Fretts led the second
squad with a 582, as Ellis (580), Marne (575), Manning (574), Sutton
(573), Sutton (573) all competing in air gun. UK will face
N.C. State on Saturday to conclude the regular season on Saturday. UK
will host the NCAA Qualifier on Feb. 18 at UK’s Barker Hall.
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