AKRON, Ohio – The Navy rifle team (1-2, 0-1 GARC) dropped a narrow decision to Akron (1-0, 1-0 GARC), 4,672-4,655, in its first conference match of the season Saturday.
 
The Zips posted a 2,318-point score in smallbore and a mark of 2,354 points in air rifle while Navy posted scores of 2,304 and 2,351 in small bore and air rifle, respectively.  

"Again this week we had some individual successes at the range," said head coach Mike Anti. "Although putting together five top scores together in each event is still a challenge. It is still early in the season and some of our younger athletes are still trying to find their stride. 

"It will come, we just need to show a little more patience and stick to the basics in competition."
 
Michael Zanti (Sr., Norfolk, Va.) once again led the way for the Midshipmen and was the top performer in the competition, firing a 585 in smallbore and a 591 in air rifle for a combined score of 1,176. Zanti's score in smallbore was just two points shy of his career-high while his air rifle score sat six points shy of his career-best score.
 
Mark Amdahl (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.) tallied a 1,162-point overall score with a mark of 573 in smallbore and a score of 589 in air rifle. Rounding out the Midshipmen in the top-10 performers of the event was Clarissa Layland (So., Granbury, Texas) who fired a 572 in smallbore and a 585-point air rifle mark for an overall 1,157, a new career-best.
 
Marleigh Duncan (Fr., Wake Forest, N.C.) turned in a strong performance in smallbore, posting the sixth-highest score in the discipline (576 points) followed by tallying 574 points in air rifle for an overall 1,150-point score. Duncan's 576 smallbore-points marked a new career-best score in the event for the freshman.
 
McKenzie Shedd (Fr., Burke, Va.) and Joshua Potts (Fr., Ephrata, Pa.) recorded overall scores of 1,156 and 1,144, respectively while Mason MacKenzie (Jr., Henderson, Md.) finished with an aggregate mark of 1,130 points. Shedd's 586 in air rifle ranked as the ninth-highest score in the match for the discipline, along with being a new career high.
 
Laurel Kuhne (Sr., Everett, Pa.) participating in only air rifle to round out Navy's participants against Akron, tallying a score of 582 points in the discipline, just three points short of her career-high point total in the event.
 
Navy will look to rebound Sunday as it completes its two-match road trip with a non-conference contest against No. 12 Ohio State slated to begin at 9 a.m.