COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (March 6, 2019)
Country roads are leading this nation’s elite NCAA rifle programs to West Virginia University Coliseum Friday and Saturday for the 2019 NCAA Rifle Championships as 48 competitors get ready to represent their sport and school.
On 19 different occasions, the West Virginia Mountaineers have proven that when it comes to NCAA Rifle titles, Morgantown is consistent home. Now, hosting the rifle championship for the first time in the illustrious history of the program, WVU will try and defend home turf against plenty of worthy competition.
University of Kentucky is the defending national champion, having ended the five-straight title streak the Mountaineers had going. The all-female squad of Texas Christian University enters as the No. 1 ranked team. Sprinkle in eight teams and eight other individual competitors with a host site anxious to showcase their love of rifle shooting and there’s more than enough intrigue.
Plenty of USA Shooting Team athletes are also among them including Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher (Springfield, Virginia), who is anxious to end her final collegiate match the same way she came in – as a champion. Both the air and smallbore NCAA champion her freshman year just prior to her Olympic gold-medal run, she was recently named the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) Shooter of the Year and Outstanding Senior. A nine-time All-American, Thrasher's aggregate season average of 1178.909 ranks No. 2 nationally. She also ranks No. 4 nationally in air rifle (594.364) and smallbore (584.545).
“I'm really proud to be an athlete at WVU and to have worn the Gold and Blue for the last four years,” Thrasher said recently. “It's something I will always look back at and remember as an amazing experience. I remember my freshman year and experiencing my
