Collegiate Rifle: TCU Defeats Alaska-Fairbanks, WVU Rises To No. 1 After Taking Down Army, John Jay

The Texas Christian University Horned Frogs rifle team secured a big win against the formerly top-ranked Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday, November 9.

TCU, the defending NCAA rifle national champion, secured the victory with a score of 4743-351X (air rifle 2391, smallbore 2352), 11 points and four Xs ahead of Alaska-Fairbanks with its score of 4732-337X (air rifle 2384, smallbore 2348).

In addition, TCU’s air rifle score of 2391 ranks as the third best in program history, as noted by gofrogs.com.

Leading the way for the TCU rifle team was junior Katie Zaun, who posted an individual aggregate score of 1187-94X. Zaun was ranked second on the individual aggregate leaderboard two points behind an Alaska-Fairbanks shooter, graduate student Cecelia Ossi, who walked away from the match as the top-ranked individual competitor after firing an aggregate score of 1189-93X. Additionally, Zaun topped the individual standings in air rifle with 598-56X, while Ossi led the field in smallbore with 593-39X.

After its victory over the weekend, TCU jumped to third place in the CRCA poll top 20 rankings, while Alaska-Fairbanks dropped to fifth.

You can view the full TCU vs. Alaska-Fairbanks match scorecard at the NCAA rifle website.

Next up for the Texas Christian University rifle team is a road match against West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Saturday, November 16. After a break, the Alaska-Fairbanks rifle team will next tackle a pair of road matches, heading to the Citadel in South Carolina on Thursday, November 21, and then a match against Georgia Southern the following day.

WVU DEFEATS ARMY, JOHN JAY

The then-No. 3-ranked West Virginia University rifle team walked away from a two-day competition at West Point, New York, with a pair of victories on November 9-10.

WVU rifle captured its first victory of the weekend against Army with a 74-point advantage, 4752-372X to 4678-288X. Topping the individual aggregate leaderboard was WVU senior Gavin Barnick, who amassed a score of 1190-94X. Six more WVU shooters were ranked behind Barnick (in descending order): sophomore Lauri Syrja (second), freshman Ashlyn Blake (third), sophomore Griffin Lake (fourth), freshman Camryn Camp (fifth), freshman Jacob Wiseman (sixth) and sophomore Maximus Duncan (eighth). As for the Army rifle team, senior Briggs More claimed seventh place in the individual aggregate rankings with a score of 1175-75X.

The Mountaineers next faced John Jay College on November 10. WVU left West Point with its second win of the weekend with a final score of 4736-336X to John Jay’s 4229-94X. Again, leading the way for the WVU rifle team was Gavin Barnick, who posted an individual aggregate score of 1188-89X, which was the high score of the match. The top shooter for John Jay was junior Danny Canning, whose score of 1108-28X ranked her eighth on the individual aggregate leaderboard.

According to Chris Coombs in an article published to wvusports.com, WVU has won 20 straight regular season matches going back to the beginning of the 2023-2024 season.

Thanks to the pair of wins on the road, WVU jumped two spots to number one in the CRCA top 20 rankings.

View the results of the WVU vs. Army and WVU vs. John Jay competitions at the NCAA rifle website.

WVU rifle will next face TCU in the aforementioned competition to be held in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Saturday, November 16.

Below are the latest CRCA poll top 20 rankings.

College Rifle Coaches Association Top 20 Rifle Teams

Rankings current as of Monday, November 11, 2024.

1. WVU
2. Georgia Southern
3. TCU
4. Kentucky
5. Alaska-Fairbanks
6. Murray State
7. Nebraska
8. Ole Miss
9. Ohio State
10. Air Force
11. Memphis
12. Navy
13. Army
14. Akron
15. Morehead State
16. UTEP
17. Jacksonville State
18. UT-Martin
19. North Georgia
20. The Citadel

Learn more about the TCU, Alaska-Fairbanks, WVU, Army and John Jay rifle teams.