Murray State University Athletics
Racers to host 26th annual Roger Withrow Invitational
1/27/2005 6:00:00 AM | Rifle
The match is traditionally the Racers' warmup before the NCAA Sectionals, which determine the qualifiers for the NCAA Championships.
Teams taking part in this year's Invitational include Ohio Valley Conference members Austin Peay, Jacksonville State, Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee Tech along with Kentucky, Memphis, Mississippi, Missouri-Kansas City and Ohio State.
The event is named for former Racer rifler Roger Withrow, who shot at Murray State in the 1977-78 school year, and was a part of the 1978 team that won the first-ever national rifle championship, sponsored that year by the National Rifle Association.
He was recruited to Murray State from Casper (Wyo.) Junior College, when he scored a big win for his team in the 1976 Marksmen Class of the High Power Service Rifle National Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio.
Withrow developed herniated disks in his back and was forced to withdraw from the team in the summer of 1978, and returned home to Rawlins, Wyo., to rehabilitate his back and prepare for international competition.
While working construction at home, he was involved in an accident when eight tons of pipe fell on him, paralyzing him and crushing four vertebrae, severing his spinal cord, breaking 12 ribs, his right thigh bone and his right ankle bone.
Withrow returned to shooting in 1982, competing in the National Wheelchair Shooting Federation. From there, he competed internationally, garnering one Paralympic record (in association with the 1984 Olympics), three world records, eight Pan American records and 28 international medals (15 gold, 11 silver and two bronze).
Withrow is currently a volunteer coach at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center Shooting Club. He has four children: Beth, 23; Adam, 21; Alex, 21; and Kaleb, 17. He remains very active in competitive rifle and keeps in touch with Racer rifle. Although he had hoped to attend the Invitational, he will not be able to make the trip this weekend.
