Collegiate Rifle: Muller, Perkowski Shoot Perfect 600s in NCAA Air Rifle

Two perfect air rifle scores went up in NCAA rifle over the weekend, one in interior Alaska and one in southeast Georgia. For Alaska-Fairbanks’ Teagan Perkowski, the 600 came in the first match of the season. For West Virginia’s Océanne Muller, it was the third of the fall and a new program record.

Those two scores push this season’s total to eight, and West Virginia owns half of them. Teammate Jennifer Kocher shot one at Army on Oct. 4, the same day Navy’s Isabella Baldwin and Tyler Wee each posted a 600 at Ohio State. Kentucky’s Braden Peiser accounts for the other, fired Oct. 10.

Alaska-Fairbanks’ Teagan Perkowski, left, and West Virginia’s Océanne Muller each posted a perfect 600 in air rifle on back-to-back days, Oct. 16-17. (Photos courtesy of WVU and Alaska-Fairbanks Athletic Communications)

Perkowski went first. Shooting at home in Fairbanks on Oct. 16, he strung together six 100s for a 600-51X, and Alaska opened its season—and its Patriot Rifle Conference schedule—with a 4723-4674 win over Ohio State. The Nanooks won smallbore 2334-2305 and air rifle 2389-2369.

A day later, Muller fired the first 600 in the history of Georgia Southern’s Shooting Sports Education Center, a 600-58X that left only two of her 60 shots outside the X-ring. It anchored a 4741-4728 win for top-ranked West Virginia over No. 4 Georgia Southern, the Mountaineers’ fifth consecutive victory. According to the school, no Mountaineer had ever recorded three 600s in a season or a career.

Five matches in, Muller has dropped just two points in air rifle. She opened with a 600 at home in Morgantown on Sept. 26 and followed with another at Army on Oct. 3. Her only blemishes are a pair of 599s, the latest on Oct. 18, when she added a 591 in smallbore for an 1190 aggregate. Georgia Southern won that day’s three-way match, snapping West Virginia’s five-match winning streak 4740-362X to 4738-354X, with Alabama-Birmingham third at 4568-222X.

Perkowski needed one match to join this season’s list of perfect shooters. Muller needed three weeks to rewrite a line of West Virginia’s record book.

See full match scorecards at ncaarifle.org.