National Championship Rifle Match

[Zipsrifle]

As everyone has seen throughout the year, this shooting team is one of the best ever at UA. But what will it take to get to the "big dance"? Again, the top 8 teams in the country get invited to compete in Air Rifle, Smallbore, or both for the National Championship. In addition, there are some open slots for individuals who shoot exceptionally well but aren't on the top teams. In the past, 8 or so years the Zips have come close several times, but have never made the cut. Is this the season? Here is what one expert (not I) thinks needs to happen to make the cut. The qualifier is this weekend.

The first major hurdle is for Coach to pick the right team. As I mentioned before, the teams are chosen before the match so that doesn't necessairly mean the top 4 shooters scores count. If you browse through the previous matches, you will see that though coach has a very deep team, this isn't necessairly a good thing. All of the shooters are bunched around the scores. Without going into too much detail, this is a common problem and a topic all it's own. The result though is that it is very difficult for coach to come up consistently with the top 4 shooters. A shooter may be clearly be the top shooter in practice but stumble in matches. All I can say is good luck coach.

The next hurdle is what scores do the Zips need to hit to have a realistic chance. Coach mentioned that the team had a goal of shooting for 2300's this year. That means a team score of 2300 in SB and a 2300 in air. These scores would give them an excellent chance at the big dance. If you look at the scores from the past year, the zips have actually broken this mark twice in SB and once in Air in a match. This is an adjusted figure (not all matches shoot the same number of shots) and the Zips have never eclipsed both scores in the same match. There have been many more matches where the Zips have been just a few points below 2300. So, the team is right at the mark.

At this point, looking at the competiton, it appears that the bar has been raised and the Zips will have to put up numbers near 2330 in SB and 2310 in air to make the cut. Though the team will need to have another excellent day, this is not an insurmountable task. During the 4th match against Philly, the top 4 Zips shooters combine for a SB score of 2322 and 2307 in Air. This is very close to what is estimated for a berth in the NCAA Championship match. Coach appears to be excited and always tries to get the team to peak for this match. The scores have been going up as of late and it will be close.

So, we'll wait to see what happens this weekend. I wish the team the best of luck and hope they have fun. If I have any advice, it is to have fun. I ended up shooting my best scores in my last match. Why.... because I was there to have fun and that all the "Pressure" was just self induced. Just like the BB team and the FB team, none of the top teams expect you to be any good....they are the ones with the pressure. Go in there and blind side 'em.

Go Zips!