Collegiate Rifle: Scalding Hot No. 9 Akron Defeats No. 13 Memphis

It may have been cool enough for the first snowfall of the season, but the red-hot No. 9 Akron Zips rifle team outpaced No. 13 Memphis in a 4697-4674 battle on the Tigers’ home range on November 12. Akron’s dynamic trio of junior Gavin Perkowski, sophomore Lex Kirk and freshman Andrew Duross lit up the leaderboard as the top three performers at the match.

Regarding his team in smallbore, Akron Head Coach Newt Engle said, “I am very pleased with this smallbore performance. It looks like all the hard work over the past few weeks is paying off.” As for air rifle, he said, “When we do this and combine it with smallbore scores like today, amazing things will happen. I have seen them perform at levels worthy of champions and I know we will figure out a way to make this happen again.”

In the smallbore division, it was all Akron. Led by Perkowski with 587, Akron captured the top five individual spots, with all five shooters scoring in the 580s. This gave Akron a victory in smallbore with the team score of 2338, only one point away from the school record.

In addition, the top individual shooter in the match aggregate was Akron’s Andrew Duross with 1177 (592 air rifle, 585 smallbore).

Akron’s Andrew Duross was the top individual shooter at the Memphis vs. Akron competition on November 12 with an 1177 aggregate score.

As for air rifle, that was another story for Akron. With only Kirk and Duross in the 590s (earning identical 592s), Akron could not match the prowess of Memphis, who took the division, 2367-2359. This was an eye-opener for Akron coaches, as well as the team. Clearly, we have some work ahead of us with the air rifle.

The top individual shooter for Memphis at the match was Gabriela Zych with an 1175 aggregate score (air rifle 595, smallbore 580).

Akron at Memphis, November 14, 2022

1. Akron 4697 (air rifle 2359, smallbore 2338)
2. Memphis 4674 (air rifle 2367, smallbore 2307)

See the full NCAA scorecard of the match here.

See the latest CRCA rankings below.

Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association Top 20 Rankings

1. Ole Miss
2. Texas Christian University
3. West Virginia University
4. University of Alaska-Fairbanks
5. Kentucky
6. Nebraska
7. Air Force
8. Murray State
9. Akron
10. Navy
11. Ohio State
12. Morehead State
13. Memphis
14. Army
15. North Carolina State
16. Georgia Southern
17. Jacksonville State
18. North Georgia
19. The Citadel
20. University of Tennessee-Martin

Above rankings are current as of Monday, November 14.

Next, Akron will host “Academy Day” on Saturday, November 19, with the No. 7-ranked U.S. Air Force Academy and No. 11 U.S. Naval Academy teams traveling to Ohio. The match will begin at 9:00 a.m. on the Akron rifle team’s home range in Schrank Hall South.

Learn more about Akron rifle and Memphis rifle.