MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 10 Navy rifle team (10-5, 3-2 GARC) opened the spring portion of its season at top-ranked West Virginia (9-0, 3-0 GARC) at the WVU Rifle Range on Saturday. The Mountaineers recorded a 4754-4720 victory over the Midshipmen. The 4720 points for the Mids was a season-high and the fourth-best performance in program history.
 
"We had a great competition today with a lot of strong individual performances," head coach Mike Anti said. "Our team score was our highest this season and it helped us move up in the NCAA rankings. I was really happy with our start in smallbore. After shooting kneeling and prone in the smallbore event, we were only a point behind WVU, the 1st ranked team in the nation. Our air rifle today was also solid, shooting our highest score of the season with six of our athletes breaking the 590 mark.
 
"Three of our starters – Isabella Baldwin, Marleigh Duncan, and Parker Haydin – shot some of their best scores of the season. We also had two shooters fire their personal best in air rifle, Joshua Potts and Devin Uhrich both firing 592. John Dely also shot season highs in both smallbore and air rifle.
 
"We have a couple of weeks before we shoot against Army. We have some work to do to get ready but are looking forward to that match."
 
The Midshipmen started the day with a 2346 in smallbore – just three points back of their season-best performance of 2349 in the event that they notched the last time out against Akron and Nebraska on Nov. 17. Navy followed that performance with a season-high 2374 in air rifle to notched a combined tally of 4720 on the day.
 
West Virginia claimed the top three spots as Gavin Barnick (1191 points), Griffin Lake (1189) and Lauri Syrja (1187) finishing in order. Navy's Isabella Baldwin (1186), Parker Haydin (1182), and Marleigh Duncan (1180) were able to notch top-10 performances on the day to lead the Midshipmen to their highest point total of the year.
 
Baldwin tied a career-best aggregate score of 1186 to lead the Midshipmen shooters on the day. The sophomore posted a season-high score of 592 in smallbore to go along with a 594 in air rifle. Haydin followed with a season-best 1182 combined score. Similar to Baldwin, Haydin posted a season-best score in smallbore (589) to go along with a solid air rifle tally (593) for his top performance of the season. Duncan fell one-point shy of tying her top season performance, turning in a scorecard of 1180. The senior notched a 585 in smallbore with a season-high score of 595 in air rifle.
 
Senior team captain Stephanie Milvain shot an aggregate score of 1170. She posted a smallbore tally of 580 to go along with a total of 590 in air rifle. Her air rifle performance tied for her performance of the year, which she set in the season opener against defending national champion TCU and VMI.
 
Devin Uhrich, Ryan Wee, and Joshua Potts all posted scores in the 1160s. Uhrich posted a career-high score of 592 in air rifle to go with a 573 in smallbore for a season-best performance of 1165 in aggregate. The junior's score of 1165 was two points shy of his career-best. Wee was two-points shy of Uhrich with a combined score of 1163. Wee posted scores of 578 (smallbore) and 585 (air rifle) for his aggregate total. Joshua Potts finished the day with an 1162, notching a smallbore score of 570 and a career-best air rifle score of 592.
 
Catherine Dely and Grace Shepard matched one another's aggregate score, posting an 1157 each. For Shepard, the 1157 was a season-best. C.Dely recorded scores of 571 (smallbore) and 586 (air rifle), while Shepard registered scores of 570 (smallbore) and 587 (air rifle) to match each other's performances.
 
Elizabeth Johnson, Chelsie Glover, and John Dely rounded out the scoring for the Midshipmen. Johnson carded an 1143 (566 SB, 577 AR) with Glover notching an 1137 (564 SB, 573 AR) and J.Dely finishing with an 1109 (548 SB, 561 AR).
 
Up next, Navy will host rival Army (2-6, 0-0 GARC) on Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Bancroft Hall Rifle Range for the annual Army-Navy Star Match.