ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy rifle team (1-1) totaled 4,673 points during their season-opening event of the season where they suffered a narrow defeat to the defending air rifle national champion TCU (1-0) – who scored 4,710 points – but defeated VMI (0-1) after the Keydets scored 4,504 points on Saturday at the Bancroft Hall Rifle Range.
 
"We really had a great match for the first competition of the season," said head coach Mike Anti. "We were one point away from setting a school air rifle record and had a number of individual personal bests. Our smallbore results were not quite what we were looking for.
 
"We are a stronger team in smallbore than what we showed today, we'll address some of those issues this week in preparation for next week's matches against Akron and Ohio State. Michael Zanti, our team captain, had an outstanding match, recording the second-best combined score in program history."  
 
Navy totaled 2,301 points in smallbore along with score of 2,372 points in air rifle, finishing just 37 points behind the first-place Horned Frogs. The 2,372 points in air rifle marks the second-best team score in program history for the Midshipmen in the event.
 
The aforementioned Michael Zanti (Sr., Norfolk, Va.) led the way for the Mids, posting 587 points in smallbore along with totaling 597 points in air rifle for a combined score of 1,184 points. All three marks were new career-highs for the senior while his combined score ranks as the second-highest aggregate score in program history.
 
Mark Amdahl (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.) joined Zanti among the top performers in the match, compiling 572 and 595 points in smallbore and air rifle, respectively, for a total of 1,167 points. The senior missed tying a career-best in air rifle scoring by just one point.
 
Marleigh Duncan (Fr., Wake Forest, N.C.) made a strong first impression in her first collegiate action, finishing in the top-10 among individual performers with 573 points in smallbore and a score of 586 in air rifle. McKenzie Shedd (Fr., Burke, Va.) compiled a 1,158 combined score on 594 air rifle and 564 smallbore points, finishing just outside the top-10. Fellow newcomer Joshua Potts (Fr., Ephrata, Pa.) had a strong showing of his own, finishing with a combined score of 1,152 points.
 
Sophomore Clarissa Layland (Granbury, Texas) just missed tying her career-best score in smallbore with 569 points while tallying 580 points in air rifle to round out Navy's top performers. 
 
TCU had seven shooters finish in the top-10, with Stephanie Grundsøe finishing tied for second behind Zanti with 1,181 combined points with teammate Kristen Hemphill.
 
The Horned Frogs finished with a score of 2,328 in smallbore along with totaling 2,382 points in air rifle to finish first in the team standings with 4,710 total points. VMI finished third with 4,504 points while the Keydets also had its women's team shoot at the event, recording 4,378 points.

Navy is back in action on Saturday, October 2 as it starts a four-match road trip beginning with a contest against Akron. The match is slated to begin at 9 a.m.