March 6, 2010

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The Navy rifle team rallied from an 11-point smallbore deficit to defeat Akron in the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference Championship, 4584 - 4564, on Saturday afternoon. The win improves Navy's record to 8-1 overall, heading into next weekend's NCAA Championship.

Navy failed to win the smallbore discipline at the MAC Championships for the first time since 1999, but the air rifle title was the program's seventh straight.

"Getting ready for NCAAs, this was not the score we wanted. We had been shooting significantly higher scores in practice, so today was a disappointing day," said Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "Hopefully, today's performance is a wake-up call."

The Mids trailed 2282 - 2271 after the smallbore portion. Kenan Wang and Chris Burleson led Navy with a 571 each. Ryan Williams totaled a 569, and Alison Lankes rounded out Navy's scoring with a 560.

The Mids then rallied in air rifle, outscoring the Zips, 2313 - 2282, to earn the 20-point victory overall. Lankes led Navy with a 583. Burleson followed with a 579, while Wang and Williams scored a 577 and 574, respectively.

Navy will now practice for a couple of days before leaving for Fort Worth, Texas, for the NCAA Championships on Wednesday.

"We have to get back to having the tough attitude that we showed in practice that allowed us to shoot well in practice," said Kelley. "It's going to be an extremely tight competition with Alaska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Army and others. We have work to do this week. I hope we aren't satisfied in just making it, because we can perform way better than this."

The NCAA Championships will be held on Friday and Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, and hosted by TCU.

# GO NAVY #