UK's Emily Holsopple led the Wildcats to a first-place smallbore finish, but the team was outshot in air rifle by Texas Christian University and finished second overall.

Last week, on the campus of Ohio State University, the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University earned their second NCAA rifle championship in the past three years. The all-woman squad of Sarah Scherer, Mattie Brogdon, Sarah Beard, Caitlin Morrissey and Catherine Green, was five points behind defending champ University of Kentucky, but it put together an excellent air rifle score to pass both UK and Army to win the overall title by a whopping 15 points with a 4676.

UK’s Wildcats—Emily Holsopple, Henri Junghanel, Ethan Settlemires and Stacy Wheatley—were very strong in smallbore, but their shaky air rifle shooting left them in second place. The University of Alaska-Fairbanks squad—Ryan Anderson, Mike Liuzza, Anna Hjelmevoll, Julia Redzia and Mats Eriksson—came in third, a strong air rifle performance lifting them out of fourth place.

TCU’s Scherer won the individual smallbore title, firing a 589 three-position and adding a 99.6 in the finals competition for the victory. Michael Matthews of the U.S. Military Academy finished second with a 589/98.6, and UK’s Holsopple came in third with a 587/100.

In air rifle it was West Virginia University’s Petra Zublasing taking the individual honors with a 593 in the qualifying course of fire and a 103.2 in the finals. Abigail Stanec of Ole Miss was in third place with a 592 going into the finals but fired a 101.5 there to move past TCU’s Scherer (593/100.3) and capture second by 0.2 point.

Below are the final results. A note on the individual scores. They’re presented qualifying score/final score with the total in parentheses. In finals competition, the scoring rings are broken into tenths.

2012 NCAA Rifle Championships Final Results

Team Competition–Combined

1. Texas Christian University—4676-270X
2. University of Kentucky—4661-264X
3. University of Alaska-Fairbanks—4661-254X

Team Competition—Smallbore

1. University of Kentucky—2328-122X
2. U.S. Military Academy—2325-101X
3. Texas Christian University—2323-112X

Team Competition—Air Rifle

1. Texas Christian University—2353-158X
2. West Virginia University—2350-156X
3. University of Alaska-Fairbanks—2349-156X

Individual Competition—Smallbore

1. Sarah Scherer, TCU—589+99.6 (688.6)
2. Michael Matthews, Army—589+98.6 (687.6)
3. Emily Holsopple, UK—587+100 (687)

Individual Competition—Air Rifle

1. Petra Zublasing, WVU—593+103.2 (696.2)
2. Abigail Stanec, Ole Miss—592+101.5 (693.5)
3. Sarah Scherer, TCU—593+100.3 (693.3)