ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy rifle team (10-9, 1-5 GARC) returns to action this weekend as the team travels to West Point, N.Y. to take part in the annual Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) Championship hosted by Army at the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center.
 
Action will get underway Saturday at 8:00 a.m. with the smallbore competition, followed by an 8:00 a.m. start on Sunday for the air rifle portion of the championship. Free live results for both days of competition will be available via NavySports.com.
 
GARC Championship History
A member of the GARC since the 2014-15 season, Navy saw its best finishes at the smallbore portion of the championship come during the 2017 and 2020 seasons with a pair of third-place marks. In air rifle competition, the Midshipmen tied for third place in 2022 for their best finish in the discipline at the event. The Mids' top aggregate finish came in 2018, finishing third overall. Last season, Navy finished fourth overall at the GARC Championship.
 
The Field
Joining the Midshipmen among the GARC Championship field will be fellow conference members Akron, Army, Kentucky, Memphis, Ole Miss, and West Virginia. Of the seven GARC teams, four earned a bid to the NCAA Championship field – Kentucky, Ole Miss, Navy, and West Virginia.
 
NCAA Championship Bound
The Navy rifle team was selected as one of eight teams that will compete at the upcoming NCAA Rifle National Championship, the national office announced Monday evening during its selection show. With three consecutive record-breaking weekends, including the NCAA Qualifying Match, the Midshipmen moved themselves from 12th-place in the standings to seventh place, jumping ahead of Nebraska who qualified eighth.
 
Joining No. 7 Navy in this year's national championship field is championship host No. 1 West Virginia, No. 2 TCU, No. 3 Air Force, No. 4 Kentucky, defending national champion No. 5 Alaska Fairbanks, No. 6 Ole Miss, and No. 8 Nebraska.
 
The NCAA also released its individual qualifiers for both smallbore and air rifle. The smallbore individuals include The Citadel's James Hart IV, Ohio State's Paige Hollowell and Derek Keiser, and Memphis' Gabriela Zych. The air rifle individual qualifiers are Keiser, Zych, Murray State's Allison Henry, Ohio State's Victor Kiss, Akron's Gavin Perkowski, and Georgia Southern's Emma Pohlmann. Murray State's Matias Kiuru and Ohio State's Kiss will serve as alternates for smallbore, while Georgia Southern's Zahra Gonzalez Mazo and Memphis' Angeline Henry will be alternates in air rifle.
 
Scouting the Midshipmen
The Midshipmen enter the weekend on the heels of three consecutive record-breaking weekends. Against Georgia Southern and The Citadel, Navy tallied a school-record score of 2358 in smallbore en route to a program record 4727, topping the record mark set a week prior (4724) in the Army-Navy Star Series match. Last weekend, the Mids used a program record in air rifle (2383) to tally 4721 aggregate points in the NCAA Qualifier against John Jay.
 
With the three consecutive record-breaking weekends, the Mids moved themselves from 12th-place in the standings to seventh place to earn a spot in the upcoming NCAA Championship.
 
Navy topped the 4700-point plateau eight times in 13 competition dates, counting the season-high 4727 against Georgia Southern and The Citadel. Additionally, Navy has come within five points of the 4700-mark on two other occasions, including 4695 points against reigning champion Alaska Fairbanks.
 
Freshman Isabella Baldwin leads the team in smallbore, air rifle and aggregate. She boasts a smallbore average of 588.5 and an air rifle tally of 593.2. The rookie has a team-high 1181.7 in aggregate scoring to lead all Midshipmen.
 
Marleigh Duncan ranks second on the season in smallbore and aggregate, while coming in third in air rifle. The junior holds a 587.0 average in smallbore, while notching a 1179.5 in aggregate. Duncan has an air rifle average of 592.5 through the 13 competition dates of the 2023-24 season.
 
Clarissa Layland is second on the team in air rifle, while coming in third among Navy shooters in aggregate scoring. The senior holds a 592.8 mean score in air rifle, while notching a tally of 1170.8 in the combined average. Additionally, Layland is fifth on the squad with a 578.1 average in smallbore scoring.
 
Freshman Ryan Wee is fourth on the team in smallbore and aggregate scoring. The rookie has a smallbore total of 578.6, while averaging 1165.2 in aggregate. Wee is fifth on the team in air rifle with an average of 586.5.
 
Junior Stephanie Milvain is third on the team in smallbore with a score of 580.5, while holding an average score of 1162.8 in aggregate to place fifth on Navy's team standings.
 
Senior Deonte Hayes is fourth air rifle with an average of 588.7. Additionally, he is just outside the top five in smallbore (573.8) and aggregate (1162.4), ranking sixth on the team in each category.
 
Junior Joshua Potts is one spot back of Hayes in smallbore and aggregate with scores of 573.8 and 1160.0, respectively. He is sixth in air rifle with a tally of 586.2, just 0.3 points back of fifth place.
 
Sophomore Catherine Dely (1147.0), sophomore Devin Uhrich (1146.7), senior Mark Dely (1129.7), sophomore Grace Shepard (1127.8), and freshman John Dely (1101.0) round out the aggregate scoring for the Midshipmen. Freshman Chelsie Glover has turned in an air rifle average of 576.8 in five competitions of the season.
 
Up Next
Following the GARC Championship, Navy will compete in the 2024 NCAA Rifle Championship, which is hosted by West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va., on March 8-9. Individual and team competitions in smallbore three-position (60 shots) will be held Friday, March 8, and individual and team competitions in air rifle (60 shots) will be held Saturday, March 9. The overall team champion will be determined by combining the smallbore and air rifle team total scores into one aggregate score for each institution.