Kyle Smith

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The reigning national champion West Virginia University rifle team continues its season-opening road trip this weekend, with matches at Ohio State on Oct. 17 and at Akron on Oct 18. Both contests are set to begin at 8 a.m.

The Mountaineers (2-0, 1-0 GARC) return to the road after sweeping Air Force and Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb., last weekend.

“This weekend’s matches will be our only matches this season with paper targets. We have been practicing with those this week, and I am interested to see how we perform,” says coach Jon Hammond. “That is certainly not an excuse for overall performance – I think this team is capable of always shooting good scores. This will just be something different to throw in the mix.

“We had a solid start last weekend. We are looking at a four-week break after these matches, so we need to continue to build on our progress and earn more solid scores this weekend.”

WVU earned wins over the Buckeyes and the Zips last year, defeating OSU 4629-4535, in the season-opener, and Akron, 4666-4516, in the 2009 regular-season finale.

The Mountaineers have never lost to either team, and hold respective 35-0 and 7-0 series records over Ohio State and Akron.

WVU launched a fast defense of its 14th national title last weekend, defeating the Falcons, 4655-4587, and the Cornhuskers, 4660-4634. The Mountaineers’ winning score over Air Force was a program best for season-openers.

Additionally, the Mountaineers earned smallbore and air rifle wins in both matches and shot respective discipline averages of 2309.5 and 2348.

Sophomore Justin Pentz and junior Kyle Smith recorded personal-best air rifle scores against Nebraska, with Pentz winning the discipline with a score of 589, and Smith finishing second with a score of 588.

Following this weekend’s matches, WVU will embark on a month-long break before playing host to Army at the WVU Rifle Range on Nov. 14 in the team’s season home-opener. The match is expected to begin at 8 a.m. and last all day.



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