The NCAA News - News and Features

March 17, 1997

Mountaineers gun down field to win another rifle title

West Virginia won its third straight National Collegiate Men's and Women's Rifle Championships title March 7-8 at Murray State, sweeping both disciplines in the team competition.

Paced by the smallbore shooting of Talmadge Wilkins (1,174) and the air rifle performance of Marcos Scrivner (392), the Mountaineers posted an aggregate score of 6,223.

Kentucky, which handed the Mountaineers their first dual-meet home loss since 1979 during the regular season, finished a school-best second with an aggregate score of 6,175.

Scrivner also showed his smallbore mastery during individual competition on the first day of the championships, shooting a first-place 1,176 -- one shy of the meet record set in 1995 by Alaska Fairbanks' Oleg Seleznev, who finished fifth this year. Although West Virginia has dominated the team competition, Scrivner's title was the Mountaineers' first since Tim Manges and Eric Uptagraff won back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993.

Murray State's Marra Hastings won the individual air rifle crown, giving the Racers their second individual title in the event in the last three years. Hastings' score of 393 was one short of the individual meet record shared by Manges (1992), Alaska Fairbanks' Jennifer O'Neal (1993) and Kentucky's Nancy Napolski, who won last year's event.