COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the second straight year, West Virginia found itself staring up at the leaderboard after Day One. And for the second straight year, the Mountaineers didn’t blink.
WVU won its 21st NCAA rifle championship at Ohio State’s Covelli Center on Saturday, overcoming a three-point deficit and a fourth-place standing from Friday’s smallbore session with a dominant air rifle performance that put the rest of the field away. The Mountaineers finished with a team aggregate of 4748-355X—an NCAA championship record, the highest score fired by any program since the course of fire changed to 60 shots in both smallbore and air rifle in 2005—seven points clear of runner-up TCU’s 4741-354X.
Last season in Lexington, WVU trailed by five points after smallbore and stormed back for the title. This year’s rally was arguably tougher. The Mountaineers weren’t just chasing one team—they were fourth, looking up at four programs capable of winning it all. But WVU’s 2395 in air rifle was eight points clear of the next-best squad, TCU’s 2387, and that was the ballgame.
Three WVU shooters posted 599 scores in air rifle—Griffin Lake, Océanne Muller and Jennifer Kocher, each falling just one point short of perfection. Camryn Camp rounded out the team total with a 598, giving the Mountaineers a record-tying score in the discipline. All three 599 shooters advanced to the air rifle individual final.
Lake was the top overall scorer at the championship, earning the individual aggregate title with a 1194-101X on the strength of a 595 in smallbore and 599 in air rifle. He also finished third in both the smallbore and air rifle finals.
The victory is the 21st NCAA championship title for West Virginia, by far the most of any collegiate rifle program. For Head Coach Jon Hammond, it marks his eighth national championship in 20 seasons leading the Mountaineers.
Ole Miss, in its first season under new Head Coach Will Shaner, claimed third in the aggregate with 4738-339X after winning the team smallbore title on Friday with a program-record 2356-142X.
On the individual side, Audrey Gogniat of Ole Miss topped the air rifle field with a perfect 600-54X. She entered the air rifle final as the top-ranked shooter and defending champion, then rallied from behind to overtake Nebraska’s Katlyn Sullivan on the final shot to win the title.
Kentucky’s Braden Peiser won the individual smallbore championship. Peiser led the field after regulation with a 596-37X, then posted a 466.0 in the final to clear runner-up Gogniat by 1.6 points, denying her the chance to sweep both individual discipline titles.
TCU finished second in the aggregate with 4741-354X, followed by Ole Miss (4738-339X), Kentucky (4736-328X) and Nebraska (4736-318X). The margins across the top five were razor-thin, with just 12 points separating first from fifth, underscoring the depth of talent at the college rifle game’s biggest stage.
The WVU rifle team will go for a three-peat and a 22nd title in 2027, with the NCAA Rifle Championship scheduled at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.
2026 NCAA Aggregate Team Championship Leaderboard
| Rank | School | Smallbore | Air Rifle | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WVU | 2353-144X | 2395-211X | 4748-355X |
| 2 | TCU | 2354-147X | 2387-207X | 4741-354X |
| 3 | Ole Miss | 2356-142X | 2382-197X | 4738-339X |
| 4 | Kentucky | 2353-131X | 2383-197X | 4736-328X |
| 5 | Nebraska | 2354-128X | 2382-190X | 4736-318X |
| 6 | Navy | 2346-126X | 2376-184X | 4722-310X |
| 7 | Georgia Southern | 2338-118X | 2379-202X | 4717-320X |
| 8 | Alaska-Fairbanks | 2334-119X | 2380-190X | 4714-309X |
Shooting Sports USA will share more stories from the 2026 NCAA Rifle Championship this week. Subscribe to the free Insider newsletter for the latest news. Full results are available at the NCAA rifle website.
