Story by Keenan Hall
Staff writer
khall16@murraystate.edu
Murray State rifle continued to dominate against nationally-ranked opponents during Veterans Day weekend.
The Racers outscored the University of Nevada-Reno, the University of Texas-El Paso and Ohio State University in the Buckeye Open, by scoring a 4682 aggregate on Saturday, Nov. 10, and 4679 in a dual match versus on Sunday, Nov. 11.
In the Buckeye Open, Murray State finished with a smallbore score of 2321 and an air rifle score of 2361. Racer senior Barbara Schläpfer led all shooters in both smallbore and air rifle, and ended the day with 590 points in smallbore and 599 in air rifle.
Schläpfer continues to shatter records in her senior season. She snapped the Murray State individual aggregate score with 1189 points, which included registering the highest aggregate score in the nation this season, and breaking the Murray State individual air rifle record. Those were two records she tied in her last match.
“She’s been amazing,” said Head Coach Alan Lollar. “She is really consistent, and her training is every bit as good as her matches. She’s really focused and doing a great job right now.”
Murray State senior Alathea Stellars finished third among all shooters in air rifle by scoring 593 points, and finishing fifth in smallbore with 579 points. Lollar voiced his satisfaction in how his team performed, despite resting a few shooters.
“I was really proud of them,” Lollar said. “We had one of our top shooters gone for the weekend and we rested some others due to soreness and overuse. However, the group we took to Ohio State stepped up and did not miss a beat, which allowed us to win a couple matches.”
The Racers will finish the 2018 portion of the season at home after competing in several travel matches in recent weeks. Murray State shoots-off against the University of Ole Miss at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17, at Pat Spurgin Rifle Range.
“We are trying to push so we can be sharp going into the break so we can come out of it sharp,” Lollar said. We’ll be starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday if anybody wants to come out and watch.”