Oct. 23, 2010

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Navy rifle team posted a pair of victories over MIT and Wentworth Saturday morning in Cambridge, Mass. The Midshipmen (3-0) recorded the top smallbore and air rifle scores among each of the three teams to accrue an overall score of 4561 points and outdistance both the Engineers (4321) and the Leopards (4320).

"We had some individual scores that were not too bad, but as a team we can always shoot better," said Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "This was not our best meet of the year. We have a lot of work to do in order to get ready for the President's Trophy competition in two weeks."

The Mids tallied 2257 points to win the smallbore competition by 216 points over Wentworth (2141) and 219 points over MIT (2138). Winning the individual portion of the smallbore event was Navy's Chris Burleson (Sr., McDonough, Ga.) with 580 points. Placing second amongst the Mids and tying for second place overall was Alison Lankes (Sr., Clarence, N.Y.) with 564 points. Her score allowed her to finish one point ahead of the tally posted by teammate Ryan Williams (So., McDonald, Ohio). Rounding out the foursome of scoring Mids was Karina Schmidt (Fr., Louisville, Ky.) and her total score of 550 points.

Navy also produced the best air rifle score between the three teams with a tally of 2304 points. The total topped the effort of MIT by 121 points (2183) and Wentworth by 125 points (2179). Each of the top four shooters in the air rifle competition were Mids. Pacing everyone in the field was Williams and his score of 580 points. Finishing two points in back of Williams was Burleson, while Allison Paulson (Jr., Annville, Pa.) recorded 574 points to finish in third place and Lankes tallied 572 points to place fourth both on the team and in the overall competition.

The President's Trophy competition will be contested Nov. 6 in New London, Conn. The trophy is awarded to the top team in a field that consists of Navy, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard.