The Great America Rifle Conference is headed to the Hudson Valley, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
For the second time in three seasons, Army West Point will host the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) Championship at the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center, with competition set for February 28 and March 1. The two-day format mirrors that of the NCAA Rifle Championship, with smallbore on Saturday and air rifle on Sunday.
The 2026 GARC Championship field reads like a who’s who of collegiate marksmanship: No. 1 Kentucky, No. 4 West Virginia, No. 7 Navy, No. 10 Memphis, No. 12 Akron and No. 16 Army.
All six programs are nationally ranked. That’s not a coincidence. The GARC exists specifically for schools that sponsor rifle but don't have it offered in their primary athletic conferences, and its membership has historically produced some of the most dominant teams in the sport. This weekend should be no different.
The Favorites
West Virginia rolls into West Point riding a perfect 5-0 regular season and three consecutive GARC Championship titles. The Mountaineers are chasing number 18, and the numbers behind the pursuit are staggering: 14 of the last 16 tournament crowns, including 10 in a row from 2010 to 2019. A win this weekend would also give WVU its third straight regular season and tournament sweep—a feat the program has accomplished 13 times overall.
The regular season finale in Morgantown earlier this month came with an asterisk of sorts—Kentucky’s Braden Peiser stole the individual spotlight by tying the NCAA record aggregate score of 1198, firing matching 599s in both smallbore and air rifle. It was a fitting performance for Peiser, who carries the nation’s highest average aggregate this season. The Wildcats enter as the tournament’s top-ranked team and the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Rifle Championship at Ohio State. If anyone can dethrone the Mountaineers this weekend, it’s Kentucky.
Names to Watch
Navy freshman Tyler Wee has been nothing short of spectacular in his debut season. Through 11 matches, Wee leads the Midshipmen in all three disciplines, carrying an 1188.7 aggregate average built on a 590.0 in smallbore and a 598.7 in air rifle. He’s posted three perfect 600 air rifle scores this season—remarkable production from a first-year collegiate rifle competitor and the kind of ceiling that makes Navy a top contender in this field.
Memphis junior Katrina Demerle enters the tournament as the Tigers’ top performer, having fired an 1182-80X aggregate in the NCAA qualifier against Ole Miss on February 21. The Tigers fell short of earning a team berth in next month’s NCAA Championships, but Demerle punched her own ticket, qualifying individually for the national championship in smallbore. She’ll look to carry that momentum into West Point.
For Akron, senior Natalia Siek has been the engine all season. She leads the Zips with team-best averages of 586.4 in smallbore, 592.07 in air rifle and 1178.36 in aggregate. Senior Rachael Paddock provides depth in smallbore with a 581.93 average, while freshman Matthew Kimball has emerged as a key contributor, sitting second on the team in both air rifle (589.87) and aggregate (1171.20).
Army’s top competitor heading into the weekend is senior Chris Jennings, who carries an 1174.167 aggregate average for the season. The Black Knights will look to use the home-range advantage at Tronsrue to outperform their No. 16 ranking, and with a familiar environment and a supportive crowd behind them, an upset isn’t out of the question.
Beyond the conference crown, the GARC Championship doubles as a dress rehearsal for the NCAA Rifle Championship on March 13-14. Three GARC schools—West Virginia, Kentucky and Navy—will all compete at the national championship, joined by individual smallbore qualifiers Addison Antwiler of Army and Katrina Demerle of Memphis. This weekend is their last shot before Columbus.
Learn more about GARC member school rifle programs: Army, Akron, Kentucky, Memphis, Navy and WVU.
