West Virginia Ncaa shooting champs

[butchlambert]

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (September 26, 2014) – The West Virginia University rifle team is ranked No. 1 in the College Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) preseason Top 20 poll.

The Mountaineers, two-time defending NCAA Champions, ended last season at No. 1 after winning their nation-best 16th title.

“We have very high expectations of ourselves,” coach Jon Hammond said. “The rankings don’t change that. We will be focused on achieving our goals like every other year.”

Alaska-Fairbanks, the 2014 national runner up, is ranked No. 2. Kentucky, the third-place finisher at the championship last season, sits at No. 3. Nebraska is ranked No. 4, while TCU earned the No. 5 spot.

The bottom half of the poll’s Top 10 is: Ohio State, Air Force, Jacksonville State, Army and Murray State.

WVU finished last season undefeated en route to winning its 16th National Championship. The Mountaineers won their fifth straight Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Championship and also earned the conference’s regular-season title. They shot a national championship record 4705 aggregate score, and a NCAA record 2382 air rifle score against Kentucky.

“We are coming off a National Championship and are returning the full counting team from last year,” Hammond added. “This is one of the strongest teams we have fielded. I don’t think the ranking fuels that nor takes it away regardless of where we are ranked. We are focused on ourselves, and we are looking to improve throughout the year and want to shoot the best matches we can on a consistent basis.”

Six shooters with NCAA Championship experience return this season: seniors Taylor Ciotola, Ziva Dvorsak, Meelis Kiisk, Thomas Kyanko and Maren Prediger, and junior Garrett Spurgeon. Collectively, the group has earned 20 All-America honors. Also returning for the Mountaineers are junior Patrick Sunderman and sophomore Jean-Pierre Lucas. Sunderman earned All-America Second Team in smallbore and Honorable Mention in air rifle last season.





I was able to visit with the coach,Jon Hammond, and some of his shooters. They are a very good group of very nice people.

 

[CaptainMal]

Thanks for the information.

Back in the late 70's through mid-90's I was the rifle coach at Penn Hills High School just east of Pittsburgh. Had some students go to WVU and shoot back then. Sure has a long history of quality shooting programs. Glad it's continuing.

 

[butchlambert]

It is great that Coach Hammond is a World Class shooter in his own right. He shot for WVU when he was in college and he is part of the UK Olympic shooting team. Jon is from Scotland. Being a good shooter does not make you a good coach, but it doesn't hurt.
We need more high school shooting teams.

 

[TZaun]

I've had the pleasure of visiting with Jon and Garrett while my kids were shooting in the Junior Olympics the last couple of years. They are both really good guys to talk to. Garrett is a great kid and I wish him the best in his shooting career. It was a lot of fun watching Garrett and Tim Sherry from Alaska-Fairbanks going back and forth at the JOs in air rifle and small bore.

 

[wvuredneck09]

That's my mountaineers, practice is held about 15 minutes from my house.

 

[dblinden]

Mike Anti just inducted into WVA Hall of Fame last weekend.

Here is link to article:

http://www.wvusports.com/page.cfm?story=25824

Dennis L

 

[butchlambert]

I met Mike's son Matt while at WVU. Guess what, son turned down the Air Force Academy and enrolled at WVU. He is on the Mountaineer Rifle team.