Ole Miss members of the rifle team earned medals at the USA Shooting National Championships for air rifle, pistol and smallbore this week in Ft. Benning, Georgia.
Rising senior Randi Loudin captured the bronze in the National Women’s Prone Championship. The prone event combines air rifle and smallbore into one competition. Out of 60 shots (in the prone position of laying flat on one’s chest) with a .22 long caliber rifle from various distances between 45.7-meter length and 100-meter length, Loudin averaged almost 10.29 per shot for both courses combined. This means each shot is evaluated in decimal tenths.
This marks the second consecutive year Loudin has earned a bronze medal in the prone event at the national championship.
“This was a good match,” Loudin said. “A lot of great shooters were here. I feel like there are a few things I could have improved on, but I’m grateful to have medaled again.”
Ole Miss’ head coach Marsha Beasley was on-hand in Ft. Benning to watch current, former and incoming student-athletes compete this week.
“Randi has been shooting excellent prone the last two years,” Beasley said. “Today’s repeat performance demonstrates Randi really is one of the best woman prone shooters in the U.S.
“Her success is remarkable given that she had no opportunity to practice 50 meters outdoors this past year. NCAA rifle is shot on a reduced target at 50 feet. While similar, there are additional challenges when shooting outdoors at the longer distance.”
Former Ole Miss Rebel and two-time All-American Allison Weisz, took the silver medal in a close final in the air rifle competition. She was the USA Shooting National Champion in air rifle last year. She finished with a score of 1254.3, narrowly edged by former TCU’s Sarah Beard’s 1254.6. Reigning Olympic Gold Medalist Ginny Trasher (WVU) took the bronze with a 1251.0. Each shot is scored and added to calculate the final score.
Rising sophomore Emily Cook made the finals of the junior air rifle competition and finished sixth with a 1243.3. Her teammate Abby Buesseler finished in the top 20 (18th) in air rifle with a 1228.5. Cock (15th) and Buesseler (23rd) also finished top 25 in prone.
Adam Brown is the sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.
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