Top University of Alaska-Fairbanks rifle team shooter Rylan Kissell won the Men's Air Rifle title at the 2022 USA Shooting National Championships, held June 20-22 at the organization's range in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
At the USA Shooting National Championships, air rifle shooters fire two 60-shot relays in qualification. Eight shooters are selected for the final.
Kissell, a freshman, entered the Men's Air Rifle final in second place with a qualification score of 1256.1. He was behind Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist Lucas Kozeniesky, who walked away from qualification with a first-place score of 1257.3.
After two days of solid shooting, Kissell triumphed over Kozeniesky in the final for the gold medal. In third place was Spc. Ivan Roe of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit.
In addition, Kissell was the bronze medalist in the Junior Men's Air Rifle Championship.
There were 52 total shooters in the Men's Air Rifle field at the 2022 USA Shooting National Championships.
Here is what Will Anti, the head coach of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks rifle team, said to the Alaska Nanooks website about Kissell’s performance at the match: “[Rylan] was victorious over two-time Olympian and 2020 silver medalist Lucas Kozeniesky. I was really proud to see him shoot well in the final—I think in the last year he has doubted his finals a bit and just needed one really good one to show him that he knows what he’s doing. I think he got that and more out of this one.”
See the full results of the competition at the USA Shooting website.
