For fans of rifle, here's a little note on WVU and their recent record breaking victory over #1 ranked Alaska Fairbanks...

MSNsportsNET Wrote:Rifle: No. 2 WVU Closes Regular Season on Road
by Shannon McNamara for MSNsportsNET.com
January 29, 2010

Season Scores and Averages
Nicco Campriani

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 2-ranked West Virginia University rifle team is set to conclude its regular season on the road against Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) foes Ole Miss on Jan. 30 and Memphis on Jan. 31.

The Mountaineers (8-0, 4-0 GARC) will line-up against the Rebels in Cookeville, Tenn., and against the Tigers in Murray, Ky. Both matches are set for 8 a.m. starts.

Two wins this weekend would make WVU the GARC regular-season champions, an honor the team has earned five times before, but not since 2003.

“Conference matches are always important – if we win these two this weekend, we can win the GARC regular-season trophy, something we haven’t done in some time,” says fourth-year coach Jon Hammond. “I know that the team would like to earn that honor; it would compliment all of the hard work everyone has put into this season.”

The Mountaineers enter the weekend with current win streaks over both squads. WVU, owners of a 4-3 series advantage over the Rebels, has trumped the squad twice in the past two seasons, including a 4655-4565 win last year at West Point, N.Y.

After losing the first two matches in its series with the Tigers, WVU has won the last three, including a resounding 4656-4592 victory last season, and now owns a 3-2 series lead.

“I’m not worried about our overall score this weekend, but I do think we need to be consistent,” Hammond says. “We may play with the counting team lineup a bit so some of the student-athletes get pressure-packed experience. We have not competed in an away range since last semester; I’m hoping that we can maintain our high standards away from the WVU Rifle Range and continue to shoot well.”

WVU, riding a 14-match win streak, is off to its best start since 2003, when the team jumped out to a similar start before ending the year at 11-2.

The Mountaineers earned a program-defining win last week, defeating the newly-anointed No. 1-ranked Alaska-Fairbanks, 4697-4670, on Jan. 21 at the WVU Rifle Range. The squad’s aggregate score is a nation-best mark, and the highest collegiate combined total since the NCAA implemented a 60-shot course at the onset of the 2004-05 season.

WVU earned wins over the Nanooks in air gun (2368-2352) and smallbore (2329-2318); the air gun score was a program-best mark, and the team remains undefeated in both disciplines.

Junior transfer Nicco Campriani set or tied four school records and paced the field with a program-best aggregate score of 1185. The Florence, Italy, native shot a school-record 589 smallbore (199 prone, 195 standing, 195 kneeling) and tied sophomore Michael Kulbacki’s air rifle record with a score of 596 (99, 98, 99, 100, 100, 100). Among his honors, Campriani’s standing score of 195 matched a school record, also previously achieved by Kulbacki.

The Mountaineers will return to their home range on Feb. 13 for an NCAA qualifying match against NC State at 8 a.m.

What exactly do they do in NCAA rifle?

If they just stand there and shoot targets, then sorry, I don’t consider this much of a sport; it’s about equivalent to shooting pool to me.

Now something like the Biathlon where one is on the move and then has to try to shoot, I consider this more of a sport.

This brings up a question; what is the difference between a "sport" and a "game" or "hobby". I think it mostly has to do with the physical energy involved. Pool, not a sport. Bowling, this is borderline because you do have to use more physical energy.

The NCAA doesn't share your opinion. I'd like to see you try shooting targets in a match. I bet you'd finish dead last...

(01-29-2010 07:16 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  The NCAA doesn't share your opinion. I'd like to see you try shooting targets in a match. I bet you'd finish dead last...

Probably would; still doesn't make it a sport in my eyes.

Minor details...

"Sports" are played by "athletes"......just a minor detail.

So do you consider a Rifle team a team of athletes? Maybe they are athletic otherwise, but not because they stand in one place and shoot guns.