No. 15 NC State rifle finished second in a three-team matchup in the NCAA Qualifiers on Saturday, Feb. 19, with the Pack’s 4668 aggregate score not being enough to overcome a sharpshooting No. 8 Navy squad.
NC State (1-8) is still awaiting a verdict on whether or not it’s qualified for the NCAAs, which will come to light on Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. Navy (9-7) was coming off of a win against No. 14 Army in its previous matchup and carried plenty of that momentum into today’s competition.
Midshipman Michael Zanti stole the show this afternoon, posting competition bests in both Smallbore and Air Rifle. His 1186 aggregate score put his team in a prime position to take home first, and the rest of his team truly fed off his energy. Navy occupied the top two spots in both competitions, with Zanti claiming first in each, forcing NC State to rely on some consistency through the roster that couldn’t prevail.
Other standouts for Navy included both Stephanie Milvain and Marleigh Duncan, who occupied the second place spots in Smallbore and Air Rifle respectively. Duncan’s aggregate score of 1180 landed her in second place right behind her sharpshooting teammate and locked the Pack out of a top-two finish from any individual.
As she so often has been, junior Addy Burrow was the Pack’s best performer on the day, shooting an 1173 and posting a team-high in Smallbore.
Picking up the slack in the Air Rifle competition was freshman Katie Tedeschi, who finished with a score of 580. Tedeschi’s score would only be good enough for third place in Individual Air Rifle, the highest placement for any individual member of the Pack in either competition. Burrow and Tedeschi were the only two members of NC State to crack the top five for aggregate, and the Pack only held four of the top ten placements compared to Navy’s six.
The third team in the qualifying competition was John Jay (0-5). In individual standings, no member of John Jay finished above a member of either NC State’s or Navy’s team.
The Pack’s chances of competing for an NCAA championship rely on the combination of today’s score, which counts as 50% of the team’s score, along with NC State’s three best scores from this season (scores have to be from different locations). Should the Pack not make the NCAAs as a team, athletes can still qualify as individuals.
The Pack has one final series lined up before the end of the season, the GARC conference championships on Feb. 25-26, where the Pack will travel to West Point, New York to take on some of the conference’s best opponents.
