2/16/2002 - Rifle
Rifle Improves to 8-1, Wins N-Star Over Army

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. ?? The Navy rifle team secured its ninth-straight N-Star, and improved its record to 8-1 this season, with a 7692-7625 victory over visiting Army Saturday at the Bancroft Hall rifle range. The Mids' aggregate mark is the second-highest in series history, as Navy scored 7710 points in last season's encounter.

"We shot a very good score today against a much-improved Army squad," said third-year Navy rifle coach Bill Kelley. "We did not shoot as well as we did last week in our NCAA qualifier against Duquesne, but we did manage to post the second-highest mark in series history nonetheless. We have two weeks off until we shoot in the MAC (Middle Atlantic Rifle Conference) Championships (March 2-3 in Lexington, Va.), and we should be more than ready to compete in the NCAA Championship two weeks after that."

Perhaps a blessing in disguise for the Mids is the fact that the Black Knights designated this match as their NCAA qualifier. However, in the regular four-man selection process (Army-Navy matches take the top-five scores in each discipline), neither Army's smallbore (4578) or air rifle (1539) score topped Navy's efforts from last week's competition.

Leading the way for the Mids was senior captain Luke Shank (Fort Wayne, Ind.). Shank shot a match-high 1163 in smallbore, helping Navy to a 5765 team score in the discipline. Army's Jared Lostetter did his best to keep his team in the match with by posting an 1157 mark, however the Black Knights' quintet scored 5706 points.

In air rifle competition, Lostetter and teammate Jesus Tavares posted respective 391 and 390 marks to get Army off to a great start. But Navy, led by freshman Mike Miller's (Albuquerque, N.M.) 389 score, all scored above 383 in their respective rounds to lead the hosts to a 1927-1919 triumph in the category.

The NCAA's qualfying matches will continue to be held this weekend and next weekend, when both the Mids and Black Knights will learn their fate in the eight-team-per-discipline field. The NCAA's Championship is scheduled to be held March 14-16 at Murray (Ky.) State.

Navy 7692, Army 7625

Smallbore (Navy, 5765-5706)

Navy

Luke Shank 1163

Matt Albright 1154

James Kauber 1150

Bill Tolson 1149

Mike Miller 1149

Army

Jared Lostetter 1157

Paul Charbonneau 1144

Paul Kavanaugh 1143

Kim Pienkowski 1134

Mike Dennis 1128

Air Rifle (Navy, 1927-1919)

Navy

Mike Miller 389

Marta Jung 385

Luke Shank 385

James Kauber 385

Matt Albright 383

Army

Jared Lostetter 391

Jesus Tavares 390

Kim Pienkowski 381

Paul Kavanaugh 380

Paul Charbonneau 377

For NCAA Qualifying purposes for Army...

Smallbore - 4578 combined. Team (same scores as above) comprised of Lostetter, Pienkowski, Kavanaugh and Charbonneau.

Air Rifle - 1539 combined. Team (same scores as above) comprised of Lostetter, Pienkowski, Tavares and Charbonneau.