Cambridge, Mass. - The Norwich University Rifle team competed in their first MAC Rifle Championship since 2005. The Cadets captured a comeback second-place finish in the Smallbore competition.
The two-day championship event began with the Smallbore competition before concluding with the Air Rifle portion.
During the Smallbore competition, the Cadets shot a 2121. Sophomore
Aiden Burris, who shot a 545 to lead the Cadet Smallbore efforts, finished tied for 4th on the day. Freshman
Evan Elders continued his strong second half of the season, shooting another personal best with a 536, and finishing 10th in the conference. Rounding out the scores were
Ben Kelley with a 527 (15th in conference),
Brady Simmons with a 513 (17th in conference) and
Jacob Cohn with a 508 (20th in conference).
Although the Cadets shot a good score on the day, MIT would win the Smallbore portion of the championships as three members of the MIT team finished the first day with personal bests.
At the conclusion of the match, Burris was recognized as the second best Smallbore competitor on the season in the conference behind only Keith Fatula of the United States Coast Guard Academy.
The second day of the MAC championships focused on the Air Rifle competition. Two Cadet shooters competed in the first of three relays. Junior
Jasmin Mann shot a new personal best with a 543 (18th in the conference) while Freshman
Sage Kontny turned in her second highest mark of the year with a 543 (21st in conference). The Cadets finished the Air Rifle competition with a season and program high score of 2191. Relay two had the remaining three Norwich shooters on the line and were led by Kelley with a 553 (12th in conference), Elders with a personal best 552 (15th in conference), and Burris with a 543 (tied for 18th in conference).
The Cadets finished with their second-best aggregate score of the season after shooting 4312. The strong combined score allowed the team to place 4th in the conference, out of nine teams, and were just nudged out of 3rd place by John Jay College by a mere 7 points. MIT would go on to win their first ever MAC title in program history. The Engineers scored a season best 4432 narrowly edging out the University of Rhode Island by 31 points.
The Rifle team will now anxiously await the announcement of conference post season awards at the conclusion of the academic year.
