Racer Rifle Sets Team Record In Victory At Ole Miss

Sunday, January 23

Oxford, Miss.

8:00 a.m.

Murray State

4650

4640

Mississippi

1/24/2011 2:19:37 PM | Rifle

Final Results

The Murray State Rifle team and came away with a 4650-4640 victory over Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. on Sunday.

MSU was against a hot Ole Miss squad who had recorded a school record smallbore score against number three ranked Kentucky in their last match.

MSU brought their best against the Rebels and eked out a 10-point win on the strength of their own school smallbore record with a 2314 score.

“You have heard me talk about learning to compete as a part of the maturation of this team,” MSU Head Coach Alan Lollar said. “In age we are still very young and this weekend was our first time to cut the team to only five shooters. We have to do that for the NCAA Qualifier in three weeks. We performed very well.”

The Racers got solid performances from Nehemiah Gillman (583) and Emily Quiner (580) in smallbore, followed by Katie Cleven (579) and Ashley Rose (572). In air rifle Cleven led the way with a 588, followed by Quiner (585), Gillman (584) and Barber (579).

This was the Racers third match in eight days and it runs their win streak to four, dating back to last semesters' win at the Gamecock Invitational at JSU.

The Racers' only losses this season are to higher ranked teams, twice to defending champion, #2 Texas Christian, and once to #1 West Virginia and #3 Kentucky.

“Our team had one junior (Rose), three sophomores (Quiner, Cleven, Barber) and one freshman (Gillman),” Lollar added. “This team has grown up a lot this year, they've had to.”

Lollar also spoke about the Racers' new smallbore team record.

“They did a great job,” Lollar said. “It was a school record and nobody had a personal best. It's what we strive for…consistency.”

MSU got off to a slow in air rifle when they dropped 18 points in their first 40 shots.

What came next was the kind of performance Coach Lollar has been looking for as MSU battled back and only dropped forty-six points in the next two hundred team shots.

“Championships are not easy,” Lollar said. “Like any athletic event, there is always a time you can point to as a turning point. There were four turning points in the first ten shots for this team.”

The Racers fought their way back and in the next to last set (forty team shots) they only dropped six points, and ended with a 2336.

“I think many times you can use the final score to judge a performance, but not this time.” Lollar said.” We had to have this performance from everyone because Ole Miss is a hot team right now.”

MSU's next action is at home Saturday when MSU hosts the Roger Withrow Invitational at the Pat Spurgin Range in Roy Stewart Stadium.