The No. 14 N.C. State rifle team suffered two losses in dual matches against two of the nation’s top teams in West Point, N.Y., this past weekend. Matches against the No. 5 Nebraska Cornhuskers and the No. 6 Army Black Knights made up the fourth and fifth times that the Wolfpack faced a team from the Great American Rifle Conference, widely regarded as one of the top leagues in the sport. Despite putting up high numbers in both days of competition, State returned to Raleigh with two losses

The first match for the Wolfpack was close in the opening rounds against Army Friday; however, in the final small-bore round, the Black Knights took a slim lead, 2,306 to 2,272. At the round’s end, freshman Lucas Kozeniesky was tied for the lead among shooters, with his second highest score for the season of 581. 

After the small-bore round, the Pack hoped to bounce back in the air rifle round with redshirt senior Amy Roderer, senior Madeline Pike and sophomore Daniel Cliff who all shot a score of 580 out of a possible 600. Following closely behind was sophomore Alex Martin who shot 578 out of 600. The Wolfpack ended the round with a score of 2,318. However, out of 600 possible points, two seniors from Army, Richard Calvin and Joseph Todaro shot more than 590.

The Wolfpack scores added up to 4,590, just shy of the Black Knights combined score of 4,662. 

In the second match for the weekend, The Wolfpack went head-to-head with Nebraska on Saturday looking to rebound from the loss with Army. In the opening small-bore round, Cliff paced the Pack with a score of 572; however, it wasn’t enough to hold the lead and the round ended with the Pack trailing the Cornhuskers, 2,331 to 2,261.

In the air rifle portion of the competition, Roderer led the Pack with a total score of 578. But Nebraska had all five of its shooters shoot at least 584, with two of the Huskers shooting 593 out of 600. These superior scores helped push Nebraska to its total score of 4,690, with State closely behind at 4,561 for the match.

Cliff finished fifth in the individual small-bore competition against Nebraska. Martin followed closely behind him coming in seventh. State struggled in the air rifle portion of the competition with Roderer and Pike having the highest scores among the Pack, placing them in 10th and 11th among individual shooters. 

This West Point showing was the last regular-season event for the Pack. Although the Pack enjoyed a 13-0 season in the SARC and a conference title to boot, its record against GARC competition was 0-5. 

“We are the strongest team in the Southeastern Air Rifle Conference and struggling a little bit in the Great American Rifle Conference,” head coach Keith Miller said. “The GARC is a conference with half of the top 15 teams in the nation. The competition has become very tight.” 

The Wolfpack has the next two weeks off to get back into its normal routine. After the break, State will head down to Charleston, S.C., for NCAA qualifiers where it hopes to send its best shooters to the NCAA Championship in Murray, Ky., in March.

“We are going to modify a few things but nothing major,” said Miller. “It’s just another match. We are going to work on some rough spots but mainly focus on the things that we have done well.”