Feb. 14, 2009
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Chris Burleson and Lisa Kunzelman each won medalist honors as Navy cruised past John Jay, 4612 - 4131, in the NCAA Qualifier at the Bancroft Hall Rifle Range on Saturday morning. The Mids improved to 16-1 overall with the victory and the score should be high enough to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
The qualifier counts as half of the total in the NCAA Tournament qualification process. The other half comes from an average of three previous matches shot. The NCAA then adds the two scores together and the top eight teams will shoot at the NCAA Tournament on March 13-14.
"The score we shot today as a team was about right at our average, so hopefully its good enough," said Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "It's definitely not high enough to be a lock, and we will have to wait until the first of the week.
"We didn't shoot badly, but we didn't have our best performance on a day when we needed it," said Kelley. "We'll see how it stacks up."
Navy recorded a 2284 in smallbore to John Jay's 2059. Burleson led the Mids with a 577. Kunzelman followed with a 572, Kenan Wang recorded a 570 and Alison Lankes fired a 565.
Kunzelman then garnered medalist honors in the air rifle with a 587. Lankes fired a 584, Burleson tallied a 580 and Alex Karacsonyi recorded a 577.
"I thought Lankes and Kunzelman had good air rifle scores. The rest of the squad was just right around their average," said Kelley.
Navy will be off for three weeks now, as its next competition will come on March 7 for the MAC Championships at a site to be determined.
# GO NAVY #
