West Virginia got off to a slow start but recovered to claim the national title at the 2009 NCAA National Collegiate Rifle Championships at TCU Saturday.

After misfiring in smallbore on Friday, the Mountaineers rallied to an impressive victory in air rifle the following day to capture their 14th overall national championship and first in 11 years, snapping Alaska Fairbanks’ string of three straight championships.

West Virginia, which registered a two-day point total of 4,643, is one of only five schools to capture the NCAA team title since the championships were established in 1980. Alaska Fairbanks, the defending national champion, finished fourth, 12 points behind third-place Jacksonville State (4,624) and14 points behind second-place Kentucky (4,638). Host TCU was fifth overall followed by Army, Navy and Nevada.

West Virginia performed poorly in the smallbore competition on Friday, finishing sixth with a score of 2,290. Mountaineers head coach Jon Hammond said after the disappointing results on the first day of action, the squad was simply aiming to improve on its performance in the next day’s air rifle match.

“Everyone was disappointed in their performance. We weren’t even thinking national championship today, rather to just come out and shoot well in the air rifle,” Hammond said.

West Virginia achieved that goal and more. All four of the Mountaineer shooters, who combined for a score of 2,353 to earn the team title in air rifle, also placed in the individual competition.

Bryant Wallizer led the charge. The redshirt freshman turned in a 691.3 aggregate score to capture second place in the individual competition, just sixth-tenths of a point behind Jenna Compton of Akron, who took the air rifle individual national championship. West Virginia’s Andy Lamson, Tommy Santelli and Michael Kulbacki finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the individual competition.

After capturing the team smallbore title on Friday, Jacksonville State held a slim one-point lead over Kentucky in the overall standings. The Gamecocks’ Brian Carstensen, the Ohio Valley freshman of the year and smallbore athlete of the year, took the individual national title in the discipline with a score of 682.2.

Team results

1. West Virginia, 4,643 (smallbore 2,290 -- Andy Lamson 574, Bryant Wallizer 573, Tom Santelli 570, Kyle Smith 573; air rifle 2,353 -- Michael Kulbacki 587, Lamson 589, Santelli 586, Wallizer 591); 2. Kentucky, 4,638 (smallbore 2,311 -- Thomas Csenge 575, Ethan Settlemirers 579, Andrew Roland 573, Ashley Jackson 584; air rifle 2,327 -- Megan English 575, Csenge 585, Settlemirers 581, Jackson 586); 3. Jacksonville State, 4,636 (smallbore 2,312 -- Andrea Dardas 573, Brian Carstensen 587, Phil Huckaby 571, Michael Dickinson 581; air rifle 2,324 -- Carstensen 581, Huckaby 579, Dardas 579, Dickinson 585); 4. Alas. Fairbanks, 4,624 (smallbore 2,299 -- Patrik Sartz 579, Jace Bures 574, William Galligan 570, Cody Rutter 576; air rifle 2,325 -- Rutter 585, Taylor Beard 576, Galligan 580, Sartz 584); 5. TCU, 4,614 (smallbore 2,295 -- Emily Paper 569, Erin Lorenzen 571, Mattie Brogden 581, Simone Riford 574; air rifle 2,319 -- Lauren Sullivan 581, Lorenzen 572, Brogdon 588, Riford 578); 6. Army, 4,611 (smallbore 2,291 -- Sara Lehman 569, John Manzano 571, Kelly Buck 580, Charles Ridge 571; air rifle 2,320 -- Wesley Hess 587, Lehman 575, Buck 578, Ridge 580); 7. Navy, 4,606 (smallbore 2,279 -- Chris Burleson 573, Kenan Wang 566, Lisa Kunzelman 572, Alex Karacsonyi 568; air rifle 2,327 -- Burleson 588, Alison Lankes 577, Kunzelman 584, Karacsonyi 578); 8. Nevada, 4,586 (smallbore 2,283 -- Andrew Hickey 580, Dempster Christenson 571, Jesica Klatt 567, Heather Horn 565; air rifle 2,303 -- Hickey 583, Christenson 574, Klatt 574, Leah Taboada, 572).

Individual results

Smallbore

1. Brian Carstensen, Jacksonville State, 682.2; 2. Ashley Jackson, Kentucky, 682.1; 3. Mattie Brogdon, TCU, 679.1; 4. Kelly Buck, Army, 678.2; 5. Ethan Settlemirers, Kentucky, 678.1; 6. Andrew Hickey, Nevada, 676.4; 7. Michael Dickinson, Jacksonville State, 674.3; 8. Elizabeth Lyon, Morehead St., 671.2.

Air Rifle

1. Jenna Compton, Akron, 691.6; 2. Bryant Wallizer, West Virginia, 691; 3. Andy Lamson, West Virginia, 689.7; 4. Wesley Hess, Army, 689.1; 5. Tommy Santelli, West Virginia, 687.5; 6. Michael Kulbacki, West Virginia, 686.9; 7. Mattie Brogdon, TCU, 686.6; 8. Chris Burleson, Navy, 686.1.