ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Taking on Memphis in its first Great American Rifle Conference match of the 2022-23 season, the Navy rifle team collected a 19-point victory with a 4,696-4,677 final decision on Sunday. Going shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tigers (0-1, 0-1 GARC), the Mids (3-1, 1-0 GARC) received strong efforts from throughout its lineup in the contest at the
Bancroft Hall Rifle Range. As a team, Navy posted three of the top-four highest smallbore scores and four of the top-five air rifle results.
"We had a really great day on the range against Memphis today," head coach
Mike Anti said after the match. "We were just four points shy of the 4700 mark.
Deonte Hayes,
Catherine Dely,
Clarissa Layland,
Parker Haydin,
Devin Uhrich, and
Joshua Potts all fired personal best scores – three of the six being freshmen. Our MVP this match was
Parker Haydin – a freshman – with an awesome 1,183 total points. He was followed closely by
Marleigh Duncan with an outstanding 1,181 points. We have a few weeks now to prepare for our next match against the reigning National Champions – University of Kentucky."
Individually,
Parker Haydin (Joshua, Texas) and
Marleigh Duncan (Wake Forest, N.C.) spearheaded the Mids' showing on Sunday as Haydin placed first in both the leaderboards for smallbore and aggregate scoring, while Duncan was atop the air rifle standings. Haydin shot a career-best 591 in the smallbore and 592 in air rifle for an aggregate score of 1,183. Duncan posted a season-high score of 596 in air rifle on her way to an 1,181 aggregate.
Navy led wire-to-wire on Sunday as the Mids' four scorers in the smallbore competition combined for a score of 2,321, ten more than the Tigers. The aforementioned Haydin led all shooters in smallbore as he bested Memphis' Angeline Henry by four points, 591 to 587. Duncan tied for third overall with a 585-point effort. The final two point-scorers for Navy on Sunday were
Stephanie Milvain (Matthews, N.C.) and
Clarissa Layland (Granbury, Texas), who registered totals of 575 and 570, respectively. As a non-starter
Joshua Potts (Ephrata, Pa.) shot a 585 to match his teammate Duncan.
In the air rifle portion of the matchup, Navy used a quartet of scores in the 590s to posted a combined total of 2,375 points. Duncan and Layland went shot-for-shot for top honors with Duncan edging her fellow Midshipman by one point, 596 to 595. After Henry posted a 594 to lead Memphis, the Navy duo of Haydin and Potts turned in identical 592-point results to tie for fourth place in the overall standings.
All three of the smallbore, air rifle and aggregate scores on Sunday were improvements for Navy as the Mids opened their 2022-23 campaign last weekend with a 2,311 in smallbore and a 2,354 in air rifle for an overall score of 4,665.
The Mids will step away from collegiate competition for most of the month of October as they will be next be in action in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 29 versus the University of Kentucky. The match is scheduled for a 9:00 a.m. start.
