TCU Wins Tie-Breaker Over WVU for Smallbore Title

Mountaineers, Frogs tied after first day

MORGANTOWN -- The NCAA Rifle Championships have been competed since 1980, but never at West Virginia University, which has won 19 national titles, and never in a venue like the WVU Coliseum.

"The whole buildup has been really exciting," WVU coach Jon Hammond said. "I'm really proud of my team and the way they fought out there (Friday)."

After more than six hours of competition, however, the Mountaineers found themselves in a tie for first place overall with Big 12 Conference rival Texas Christian University as both teams finished with 2,331 points.

"Not that I can remember," Hammond said when asked if he could remember a time when there was a tie after the first day's competition. "We've had some close ones, but I don't remember a tie."

The Horned Frogs made it a clean sweep of the awards on the first day as they captured their first Smallbore championship since 2012. WVU missed out on winning its fourth straight title in the event on the first tie-breaker -- center hits.

TCU's five shooters were able to hit the bullseye 127 times compared to the Mountaineers' 112. Finishing third on the day was the University of Kentucky (2,322) while rounding out the field was Murray State (2,320), Air Force Academy (2,319), Naval Academy (2,298), West Point (2,295) and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (2,287).

"Tomorrow's a new day," said Hammond. "We'll come out and compete just like we did (Friday) and see what happens."

West Virginia ended up placing three shooters in the Smallbore finals -- Virginia Thrasher, David Koenders and Morgan Phillips, who had won the last two individual crowns in the event -- while the remainder of the 8-shooter field included TCU's Elizabeth Marsh and Kristen Hemphill, Akron's Andre Gross, Levi Clark from the University of Memphis and Kentucky's Hanna Carr.

And, what a final it was.

Phillips, the two-time defending champion in Smallbore, finished seventh overall with a score of 402.3 while Thrasher, the 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist in the event, placed fifth with 4,23.1.

Winning her first individual crown was Marsh, who edged out Gross for the crown by a 457.9 to 454.8 margin. Koenders placed third (444.8).

"Honestly, yes," Marsh said. "That (winning the individual title) has been the goal for the entire year. I've been working toward it every day. It's something that has been on my mind from the beginning."

Now, Marsh will look to lead her TCU team to a sweep today when competition in the Air Rifle begins at 9:45 a.m.