The University of Akron Athletics
Akron Rifle Rewrites Record Book
October 24 | Rifle
AKRON, Ohio – Over the weekend, the No.16 Akron rifle team went up against No. 2 West Virginia and the No. 8 North Carolina State. Despite posting its third season-high score of 4,627, the Zips fell short against the Mountaineers (4,724) and the Wolfpack (4,650).
On Saturday, senior Zachary Strohl (Barto, Pa.) and junior Julia Hatch (Northfield, Vt.) finished in the top-10 performances. Strohl shot a combined score of 1,164, and Hatch followed with a combined score of 1,159. West Virginia's sophomore Ginny Thrasher, who is also an Olympic gold medalist, placed first in the top individual shooters scoring a 1,192.
The Zips returned to the range on Sunday for another shoulder-to-shoulder match against NC State. At the end of the smallbore competition, Akron stood proud finishing ahead of the Wolfpack 2,316 to 2,298. However, NC State notched a score of 2,352 to Akron's 2,332 in the air rifle competition. NC State took the match by a small margin of two. The final match score was NC State 4,650, Akron 4,648.
Strohl finished first in the top individuals posting a smallbore score of 581 and an air rifle score of 588.
The Zips still celebrated the match by breaking the old team record of 4,633 by a remarkable 15 points. Freshman Anthony Jackson (Seven Valleys, Pa.) broke the prone score record by shooting a perfect score of 200 with 20 center shots. The Zips' assistant coach Matt Cheezem held the old record, 200 with 19 center shots.
"I feel I must point out the significance of what the team did this weekend," said head coach Newt Engle. "WVU is No. 2 in the nation and NC State is No. 8 in the nation. Both of these teams have athletes who went to Rio to represent the USA at the Olympics. We might not have won the match, but we did set seven new personal best individual marks and three school records."
Next weekend the Zips travel to Philadelphia to take on the University of Sciences on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8:30 a.m.
