Rifle Preview: Tiger Open

Saturday, September 22

Memphis, Tenn.

All Day

University of Memphis

Tiger Open

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Sep 29, 2018 | Rifle

Memphis, Jacksonville State clash Sunday.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – For a second-straight season, the University of Memphis rifle program opens a campaign with an air of excitement around it.

Last year, it was former Tigers All-American Dan Hermsmeier coming back home to take over the reins of the Memphis program.

This season, Memphis' relatively new on-campus facility has a new name, the R.F. Fogelman Rifle Range, and the Tigers begin their 2018-19 season at home with the annual Tiger Open this weekend. Memphis shoots head-to-head against Jacksonville State Sunday. The Memphis-Jacksonville State match starts at 8 a.m. (CT).

The R.F. Fogelman Rifle Range is located in South Hall on the University of Memphis campus. The Tigers moved into the facility in the middle of their 2016-17 campaign, and competed their first full season there in 2017-18.The commitment from Robert Fogelman and his family will help with facility and equipment upgrades and expand recruiting internationally.

The Tigers open 2018-19 ranked in the preseason Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) poll at the No. 14 spot. Memphis finished at No. 13 in the final CRCA poll of 2017-18.

Rank	Team	Rank	Team
1.	West Virginia	11.	Nevada
2.	TCU	12.	Army
3.	Kentucky	13.	Jacksonville State
4.	Murray State	*14.*	*Memphis*
5.	Ohio State		Akron
6.	Air Force	16.	NC State
7.	Nebraska	17.	Morehead State
8.	Alaska	18.	UT Martin
9.	Ole Miss	19.	North Georgia
10.	Navy	20.	UTEP

Head coach Dan Hermsmeier comments
(On his first season as head coach in 2017-18)
"With it being my first year, I thought we had a pretty successful season in 2017-18. The team performed well after going through so many changes last year. We're still improving on things we implemented last year so we can have more success this season. We're looking to earn a top-eight spot (top eight teams go to NCAA Championships) this year."

(On picking up/improving training from last year)
"Our returnees are continuing to adapt to the new training methods we started last year. Our three freshmen have done well so far, and I'm really impressed with how they caught on to everything."

(On 2018-19 season)
"We have a mantra this season: 'Effort counts twice.' We're looking for everyone to put their full effort into the range every single day. We can't cut corners to make it to the (NCAA) championships, so it's going to require us to put forth a good effort every day.

"We have strong upperclassmen returning, including Leighton (Dempster) as our lone senior. She's looking really strong on both guns. We have three strong freshmen joining our program. We have David Crenshaw from Millington. He's the first local kid we've had in awhile. All three freshmen have been working hard on the range, and I've been impressed with them."

Tigers Tidbits

Memphis fell to Navy in the Tiger Open last season.
The Tigers return one senior in Leighton Dempster and two juniors in Levi Clark and Amberlie Ezell.
Dempster and Clark both earned invites to the 2018 NCAA Championships last March. Clark posted a sixth-place finish in smallbore, and Dempster competed in air rifle and placed 29^th.
Clark, Dempster and Ezell all competed in last year's Tiger Open. Clark's and Dempster's scores counted in Memphis' smallbore and air rifle team totals, and Ezell's air rifle mark was added in discipline team score.
Matt Dorey and Adriana Hickerson both made their collegiate debuts in last year's Tiger Open.
Freshmen David Crenshaw, Arielle Kimm and Mark Meyeraan all join the Tigers for the 2018-19 season.