Ohio State
NCAA Qualifier
Ohio State Completes Season At NCAA Qualifier – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Rifle
Feb. 24, 2015
RELATED INFO
- NCAA Qualifier Results (PDF)
- Season Stats
- Follow the Buckeyes on Facebook and Twitter
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State Rifle Team finished out their season as the host of an NCAA Qualifier match over the weekend. The Buckeyes posted a score of 4,651 finishing ahead of Akron who fired a 4,608.
In smallbore, Ohio State fired a 2309 led by freshman Drew Cheezum who fired a season high and personal best 582. He was followed closely by junior Remington Lyman who equaled his season best with a 581. Rounding out the team scoring for Ohio State was freshman Mark Matheny (574), sophomore Deanna Binnie (572) and freshman Josh Black (571).
Competing as individuals, junior Alex Kimura led the way with a 565 followed by sophomore Kendal Elder (563), sophomore Chrissy Thomas (559) and senior Jane Lankes (538) who was making her final appearance as a Buckeye.
In air rifle, the Buckeyes fired a 2342 led again by Cheezum who fired a match best 591. Matheny (585), Lyman (584), Black (582) and Binnie (582) rounded out team scoring. On the individual side Elder fired a personal and season best 587 while Thomas (578), Hagar (576), Kimura (573), and Lankes (547) rounded out the scoring for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State will now wait until Thursday for the official team and individual selections for the NCAA Rifle Championships which will be held in Fairbanks, Alaska March 13th and 14th.
“The NCAA qualifier is certainly our most important match of the season and I don’t think we could have been any more prepared for the competition,” said head coach Ryan Tanoue. “When I look at our team’s performance top to bottom we had a very solid day but unfortunately in order to give ourselves a chance to move into the top 8 and qualify for the NCAA Championships we needed to have a fantastic day and that didn’t quite materialize for our group.”
“Once again, as we have all season, we had several outstanding individual performances with Drew and Remington performing at a season best level in smallbore and Kendal in air rifle. Although the team is disappointed about our final position in the rankings there are definitely some positives to take away from the qualifier as we will look forward to the NCAA individual selections on Thursday where we will likely have members of our team selected.”
“After a long season where team scores across the country were the highest they have ever been there is definitely a sting from coming up short on our goal of qualifying as a team for the NCAA Championships,” Tanoue continued. “This group though is not one to sit around and feel sorry for themselves, and with spring and summer national level matches quickly approaching this group will continue to work hard and compete at a high level in the offseason. There are many things to take away as positives and improvements from the season. Our 3 score NCAA qualification average was the highest in program history and we were able to improve our standing at the PRC Championships as compared to last season. That being said there is still a lot of work to be done as we head toward next season. We’ll now shift our focus in the short term on preparing our individuals for the NCAA Championships and other upcoming national level matches. Looking past that, with our entire starting group returning for next season and what looks to be a very solid recruiting class, we can look forward to a level of experience and expectation that we have never had before in our program and this will be a great place to start our 2015-16 campaign toward the NCAA Championships which will be held in the state of Ohio at the University of Akron.”
