The NCAA News - News and Features

March 16, 1998

West Virginia narrowly wins fourth straight team title

The National Collegiate Men's and Women's Rifle Championships featured something completely different during first-day individual competition, but the next day was business as usual as West Virginia won its fourth consecutive team title and its 12th in the last 13 years at the March 6-7 event at Murray State.

The Mountaineers, however, didn't win by much.

West Virginia bettered Alaska Fairbanks in aggregate score, 6,214-6,211, the second-closest finish in championships history. In 1987, Murray State nipped West Virginia by two points.

The Nanooks outshot the defending champions in smallbore (4,676-4,658), but West Virginia, led by an event-record 396 by 1997 smallbore champion Marcos Scrivner, posted a 1,556 in air rifle to 1,535 by the runners-up to eke out the three-point victory. Scrivner, who shook off a disapointing individual-competition per- formance (ninth in defense of his smallbore crown; 10th in air rifle, where he was seventh last year), also led his team in smallbore during the team competition, blasting a 1,177, 10 points better than any of his teammates.

Overall, West Virginia has won 13 team championships. The last eight have come under the guidance of coach Marsha Beasley.

On the individual side, both defending champions were at the event, but neither won. In fact, this year's winners are the first from their respective schools to claim an individual title.

Karyn Juziuk of Xavier claimed the smallbore title with a prone score of 396, a standing score of 385 and a kneeling count of 388 for an aggregate 1,169. She edged Jeff Odor of Wyoming, who shot 1,167 with 73 inner tens, and West Virginia's Ron Nelson, who shot the same score, but with 67 inner tens to break the tie. Odor also was last year's smallbore runner-up.

In air rifle, both Norwich's Emily Caruso and Alaska Fairbanks' Dan Jordan shot 393, but Caruso had 30 inner tens to Jordan's 25 to break the tie. The Nanooks' Kelly Mansfield shot 392. Defending champion Marra Hastings of host Murray State failed to qualify individually, though she did shoot for the Racers in the team competition.

It was the first time since 1991 that both individual champions were women. That year, UTEP's Soma Dutta won smallbore and West Virginia's Ann-Marie Pfiffner won air rifle. This is the first year since 1995 that neither of the individual champions was a Mountaineer.