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RIFLE OPENS SPRING SEASON AT WEST POINT
Defending NCAA Champions Off to 7-0 Start to 2011-12 Title-Defense Season
WEST
POINT, N.Y. -- After blistering through its fall schedule, the
defending national champion Kentucky rifle team opens the spring
portion of its season slate, traveling to face Army on Saturday at the
Tronsrue Rifle Range.
“We are excited to get the spring
season started,” UK head coach Harry Mullins said. “We hope the weather
will hold up and the travel will be smooth. The team is anxious to get
out on the road and get the semester started in general. Attitudes and
performances have been high in training camp and (UK assistant) coach
(Stacy) Underwood has the team in a great mindset to open the
second-half of the year.”
Kentucky (7-0, 3-0 Great
American Rifle Conference) breezed through its fall portion of the
schedule with a perfect record, including league wins over Ole Miss,
Memphis and Nebraska, and non-conference victories over Ohio State,
Murray State and most recently Air Force and Alaska-Fairbanks. UK’s
best outing of the year came in a NCAA-record breaking 4711 total team
score in a win over Memphis, breaking the record the Wildcats set in a
4700 total team score in claiming the 2010-11 NCAA Championship.
“Training
camp went really well,” Mullins said. “We were a bit short because
Henri (Junghänel) was back in Germany and he hasn’t had a whole lot of
training time yet. The rest of the team had some really good
performances throughout training camp and are ready to get back on the
road. It is always exciting to go to West Point. It is a great place to
shoot and Army has a great program. They have definitely put themselves
in a position to be one of the top eight teams at the NCAA’s. This
being a conference match, it has the potential to be a high-intensity,
close match.”
Army (5-2, 4-1 GARC) has been led by senior
Kelly Buck, junior William Mengon and sophomores Joseph Todaro and
Michael Matthews. The match will pit the Wildcats, ranked No. 3 in the
latest Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association top-20 poll (4688.67),
against the fourth-ranked Army Black Knights (4655.33).
“It
will be a tall task for the team on Saturday,” Army head coach Ron
Wigger said. “Kentucky knows they won't be able to walk all over Army
and will have to perform well to beat us. If we have a stellar day on
Saturday and Kentucky has an average one, then we have a good chance of
beating them. I am looking forward to this weekend as we respond well
to the better teams.”
The Wildcats have been led during
the fall semester by veteran shooters Henri Junghänel, Emily Holsopple,
Heather Greathouse, Ethan Settlemires and Stacy Wheatley.
“It
is always great to shoot at the Army venue,” Mullins said. “We have had
good success there the last few years starting out the spring semester
in terms of some good performances. We need to focus on getting better
every day, every match. We ended the semester with some decent scores
in Alaska and we need to pick up where we left off in the fall.”
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