COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Navy rifle team finished in third place in Saturday's President's Trophy Match that was hosted by the United States Air Force Academy. Shooting versus a four-team field of service academy squads, the No. 5 Air Force Falcons set a new President's Trophy Match record with a 5,858 five-counter score to win the competition. No. 13 Army West Point ranked second with a score of 5,796, while No. 15 Navy came in third with a 5,748. The Coast Guard Academy rounded out the field with a 5,532.

Unique to competitions like the President's Trophy Match and the Army-Navy Star Match, Saturday's event used a scoring system that tests a program's depth as eight shooters are allowed to start and five to count, unlike the NCAA format of five-shoot and four-count.

Daniel Jonas (Sr., Allentown, N.J.) was Navy's high aggregate scorer with an 1,161 on Saturday, while freshman Kestrel Kuhne (Everett, Pa.) came through with a career-best performance of 585 in air rifle.

Navy had a tough start to the meet on Saturday as it recorded a 2,836 five-counter score in smallbore. Jonas led the Mids with a 575-point effort. He was the lone participant from Navy to score in the 570's as Nash Richardson (So., Rhodesdale, Md.) and Thomas Sarant (Jr., Massapequa, N.Y.) came in second on the team with identical 566 scores. Josh Watson (So., Enterprise, Ala.) was the fourth counter at 565, while Alex Muzzioli (Fr., Tiverton, R.I.) and Kuhne tied for fifth with respective 564 results. For NCAA purposes, the top-four Navy scores registered in at 2,272.

"The breaks didn't go our way in smallbore and we missed a lot of close shots with 9.9 and 9.8's," remarked Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "I was proud of the way that we stayed composed when we weren't catching those breaks. The overall smallbore outcome though was just very disappointing."

In the second half of the competition, Navy picked up its scoring pace a bit with a 2,912-point cumulative score. Jonas and Sarant led the Mids' effort as both turned in 586-point totals. Kuhne was close behind with a career-best 585 output. Muzzioli and Watson were the final two counters with respective scores of 578 and 577. In dropping Watson's score for the NCAA total, Navy recorded a 2,335.

"Air Force is a very polished team that is rightfully ranked amongst the top four teams in the nation," said Kelley. "They put a lot of pressure on you when they are posting a counting lineup of all 590's in air rifle.

"Kestrel was a bright spot for us today, especially in air rifle. She has been doing really well in training and put it together when it counted and her team needed her. A personal-best 585 is a big step in the right direction."

For NCAA purposes, the scores were as follows on Saturday: Air Force, 4,698, Army, 4,646, Navy, 4,607 and CGA, 4,474.

"Overall, we picked a bad day to be mediocre," remarked Kelley. "Our air rifle performance was fair, but we put ourselves in a substantial hole by shooting nearly 30 points below our season average in smallbore. If we were even close to being near our average this would've been a lot closer match.

"As we step away from the competitive collegiate season for the next two months, we will need to continue working and improving on performing in pressure situations."

Following a substantial break for the holidays and final exams, Navy will next be in action on Saturday, January 21 with a GARC regular season contest at West Virginia University.