Rifle Heads To Conference Championships

Saturday, February 24

Morgantown, W.Va.

8 am

University of Memphis

Great American Rifle Conference Championships

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Feb 23, 2018 | Rifle

Tigers enter league match with momentum.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The University of Memphis rifle squad wraps up its team competition this weekend at the 2018 Great American Rifle Conference (GARC) Championships in Morgantown, W.Va. West Virginia University's Bill McKenzie Rifle Range is hosting the two-day conference event Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 24-25.

The Tigers enter the conference match with momentum from the second half of the season. Memphis has posted four of its top-five aggregate scores in the last four matches.

Head coach Dan Hermsmeier
"The team has adapted to a lot of the changes we made this year. It's good to see that hard work finally paying off. We shot a good score at the sectionals, and we moved up in the rankings. That was a boost to the team's confidence. The second half of the season has gone really well for us.

"The GARC Championships is always a fun match to shoot. West Virginia has a great facility. This match will be a great tune-up for Leighton and Levi as they prepare for the NCAAs. For me, it will be good going back to West Virginia to see Coach (Jon Hammond) and friends. I'm excited to see what we can do, and we'll do well if we keep performing the way we have in practice."

Competing Schools (national rank in parenthesis)
Army (14), Akron (15), Kentucky (3), Memphis (16), Navy (13), NC State (11), Nebraska (10), Ole Miss (8), West Virginia (1)

Tigers Tidbits

This weekend's trip to Morgantown is a return to head coach Dan Hermsmeier's second "home." After completing his undergraduate degree at Memphis, Hermsmeier moved to West Virginia, where he served as a graduate assistant for the Mountaineers program for two seasons.
At the 2017 GARC Championships, the Tigers placed sixth. Makennon Doran reached the GARC Championships smallbore final, where he placed sixth.
The Tigers last shot at West Virginia in a dual match with the Mountaineers in 2016-17. Levi Clark shot a career-best 1171 aggregate (583-588) in the match. Clark tied that career-high aggregate at last weekend's NCAA Sectional Qualifier.
Since the turn of the New Year, the Tigers have shot much better, posting a 4649.5 aggregate in their four outings. Memphis has improved its aggregate average over 43 points from its 4606.2 average in its first five matches of the campaign. In those first five matches, Memphis faced four GARC opponents (Ole Miss, NC State, Army, Akron) that it will see again this weekend.
Leighton Dempster enters the GARC Championships with the league's 11^th-best air rifle average at 589.8. She has posted a 591 or better air rifle mark eight times this season, including a career-best 593 on three occasions.
Levi Clark has the 15^th-best smallbore average heading into this weekend's championships at 577.3. He tied his career-high in the discipline (584) at TCU earlier this season. He also shot a 584 in smallbore at West Virginia last season.