On Saturday, February 10, the 12th-ranked Akron Zips hosted perennial powerhouse and No. 7-ranked Ole Miss on Senior Day in Akron, Ohio. For the first time in many years, the Akron rifle squad pounded the center of the target enough times to finish ahead of Ole Miss, 4703-4699. The Akron rifle team knew they would need to fight hard for each and every shot, and that is exactly what they did.
As a coach, I couldn’t be prouder.
Akron senior Gavin Perkowski yet again lead the team in the smallbore division earning the match top-gun honors with his 589 out of 600. This was one slim point off his career-high score of 590. To demonstrate how tight the competition was, there was a three-way tie for second place in smallbore, all with like 582s. After applying the tiebreaker, Akron junior Rachel Engels landed between two Ole Miss Rebels clinching her third-place finish. Additionally, accolades go to Akron redshirt senior Katie Paltz, who established a career-high score of 579 at her last home match.
Similar to smallbore, the air rifle competition was equally tight. Akron junior Lex Kirk and Ole Miss senior Martina Gratz tied for the top-gun honors with like 596s. Kirk ended up in second, with Perkowski one small point behind with 595, endding up between two Ole Miss athletes with like 595s. Perkowski ended up in fourth place. This whole match with both rifles was Akron up by one, then Ole Miss up by one over and over again. It truly was a hard-fought match falling in favor of Akron.
The top Ole Miss shooter at the match was junior Katie Tedeschi with an individual aggregate score of 1177 (595 air rifle, 582 smallbore).
Results: Ole Miss vs. Akron on Saturday, February 10, 2024.
See the full scorecard at the NCAA rifle website.
The final regular season match of the 2023-2024 season will take place next weekend at Ohio State on Saturday, February 17, at 9:00 a.m. Arguably the most important match of the season, this competition will be the last part of the final determination of who gets invited to the 2024 NCAA Rifle Championships at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, next month. Match targets for this NCAA qualifier match may be viewed live live at this link.
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