Kentucky rifle wins GARC Championship

The Kentucky Wildcats rifle team has won the 2022 Great America Rifle Conference Championship, which took place this weekend at West Point (NY). It’s the seventh GARC Championship all-time for the program and the second in the last three season after winning it in 2020.

The Wildcats won the title thanks to a 2383 air rifle team score and a 2352 smallbore team score for a 4735 overall aggregate.

West Virginia finished second at the event with a 4732 team score.

Ole Miss finished third at 4717, while Navy was fourth at 4707.

Akron finished fifth at 4696, host Army sixth at 4686, Memphis seventh at 4670, and North Carolina State eighth at 4667.

The two-day event began Friday with smallbore relays and concluded Saturday with air rifle relays. An eight-finalist individual format followed by smallbore and air rifle.

Kentucky freshman Allison Buesseler posted a career-high tying 598 and won the air rifle individual championship.

“I am so excited for our team today to get to celebrate this championship together,” Kentucky rifle head coach Harry Mullins said in a press release. “Allison Buesseler had an incredible weekend, and I am so proud of her development and performance. The whole lineup performed well overall. We know we still have areas to improve, and we will work on that the next couple of weeks before we travel to the NCAA Championships.”

Following the GARC Championships, Kentucky will now compete in the NCAA Rifle Championship. The national event will take place from March 11-12th inside the United States Air Force Academy’s Clune Arena in Colorado Springs.

Individual and team competition in smallbore is scheduled for Friday, March 11th, while air rifle competition will be on Saturday, March 12th.