In a two-match weekend on the road, the No. 12 NC State rifle team split its opportunities with a 4668-4534 win against the No. 19 UT Martin Skyhawks on Saturday, Jan 16 followed by a 4708-4656 loss to the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels on Sunday, Jan 17. The match against the Skyhawks saw the Pack break a program record by one point in the air rifle section.

The Saturday matchup with UT Martin featured multiple performances that vied for record-breaking status. Redshirt freshman Travis Stockton put up a score of 597 in air rifle, making him the second rifleman to record 597 points in air rifle. NC State alum and Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky scored a 597 four times and holds the program record at 599 in the air rifle. 

Stockton had a field day outside of air rifle as well, posting a personal-best 1168 aggregate score, including three perfect air rifle series. This performance helped propel NC State to a new program record in air rifle at 2367. Not to be left out of the scoring action, sophomore Makenzie Sheffield and sophomore Addy Burrow finished second and third, respectively, in the aggregate. 

In a truly dominant performance against the Skyhawks, each member of the Wolfpack ousted UT Martin’s best smallbore performance by more than 30 points. No Skyhawk scored higher than the lowest aggregate score from the Pack, though this was by a closer margin of nine points.

The following match with Ole Miss was less fortunate for NC State. Despite another great showing by Stockton, who posted a 595 in air rifle, the Pack could not quite keep up with the Rebels. This was especially evident in smallbore, where only Sheffield managed to crack the 580 point mark. Sheffield’s smallbore performance was only good enough for fifth among athletes from both squads, and her teammates lagged behind to claim the ninth through 13th spots in smallbore.

Air rifle went more smoothly for the Pack, as a 594 from freshman Katie Torrence and a 591 from freshman Ben Salas accompanied Stockton’s 595. But this resurgence in air rifle was not enough to achieve victory for the Wolfpack. Ole Miss actually outscored NC State in both categories, highlighted by an air rifle performance from Ole Miss’ Kristen Derting, who rode four perfect series to a score of 597. The Rebels’ 20 perfect series across both smallbore and air rifle reinforced its superior national ranking as the Pack fell just short in a 52-point loss.

NC State rifle will continue its season as it takes on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Sunday, Jan 24.