WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Navy rifle team finished fifth at the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) Championship hosted by Army at the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center over the weekend. The Midshipmen finished the first day of competition in sixth place after the smallbore competition, but improved to fifth overall with a fifth-place showing in air rifle.
"We had a decent performance at the conference championship," head coach
Mike Anti said. "Finishing fifth in the conference is not too bad considering the strength of our conference. A couple of months ago, we would have been pleased with our score, but now we know we are capable of shooting much better. Everyone really had a good performance. We just need to find a couple more points per athlete. There is a little more than a week before the NCAA Championship and we will work hard to find those points."
Top-ranked West Virginia claimed the 2024 GARC Championship with an aggregate score of 4759. The Mountaineers were followed by Kentucky who tallied 4737 points. Ole Miss (4717) and Memphis (4714) followed with Navy rounding out the top five with 4703 total points. Akron (4701) finished sixth with championship host Army (4683) coming in seventh.
Kentucky's Braden Peiser (1194 points) claimed the individual title, while West Virginia followed with the next four individual finishers – Gavin Barnick (1193), Mary Tucker (1190), Griffin Lake (1188), and Molly McGhin (1187).
For Navy, freshman
Isabella Baldwin led the way for the Midshipmen. The rookie tallied 1181 aggregate points in her first GARC Championship. Junior
Marleigh Duncan was one point back, registering an aggregate tally of 1180, while senior
Clarissa Layland recorded 1174 points in her final GARC Championship. Freshman
Ryan Wee finished the weekend with a score of 1168, while sophomore
Catherine Dely and junior
Joshua Potts both recorded aggregate scores of 1160. Junior
Stephanie Milvain contributed a score of 1154 with sophomore
Devin Uhrich rounding out the Navy scoring with an 1143.
On the first day of competition, West Virginia led the way in smallbore, tallying a team score of 2366. Kentucky finished the day in second with 2350. Memphis and Ole Miss finished back-to-back with scores of 2341 and 2340, respectively. Akron closed out the day in fifth with 2334 points, just three points better than Navy, who tallied 2331, and five points better than Army, who closed the day out in seventh with 2329 points.
Baldwin and Duncan finished 1-2 in smallbore for the Mids. Baldwin turned in a total of 586, while Duncan was one point back with a score of 585. Layland was third among Midshipmen with a 581. Wee notched a smallbore score of 579 with Milvain rounding out the starters in the event with a 576. Dely and Potts matched one another with a score of 571 with Uhrich closing out the Navy scoring with a 567.
WVU secured the GARC title, winning the air rifle portion of the match with a team-best score of 2393. Kentucky finished second with a score of 2387, while Ole Miss was third with a 2377. Memphis finished one point ahead of Navy with 2373 to finish fourth in air rifle. Akron was sixth with an air rifle score of 2367 with Army finishing the event with 2354 points to come in seventh.
Baldwin and Duncan matched one another with a score of 595 in air rifle to lead all Navy shooters. Layland was third among the Midshipmen with a score of 593. Potts, Wee, and Dely all finished with air rifle tallies of 589. Milvain (578) and Uhrich (576) closed out the Navy scoring on the second day of competition.
Up next, Navy will compete in the 2024 NCAA Rifle Championship, which is hosted by West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va., on March 8-9.
