ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 10 Navy rifle team posted 5878-5839 victory against No. 14 Army in the annual Star Match.
The match is part of the overall Army-Navy Star Series, presented by USAA, on Saturday at the Bancroft Hall Rifle Range in Annapolis.
The win gave the Midshipmen their fourth straight win and the sixth in the last seven Star matches. In addition, the Midshipmen shot topped the 4700-point plateau in the NCAA scoring format, notching a team score of 4709.
The Midshipmen claimed the top three performances with seven Navy shooters finishing in the top 10 in on the day. Sophomore Isabella Baldwin, who led all scorers, earned the Josh Watson Memorial Trophy for being the Midshipmen's top finisher.
"I am really proud of our team," head coach Mike Anti said after claiming his sixth Star as the Navy head coach. "This is, without a doubt, always the toughest match of the season and our athletes did an amazing job staying focused and sticking to their process. Army has a very good team and no matter what the stats say prior to this match, they always bring their 'A' game when we compete. So, in order for us to win we have to be on our game also.
"We got off to a great start in air rifle with two of our athletes – Grace Shepard and Catherine Dely – shooting personal and season best scores.
"After smallbore, we had a 16-point lead going into the final air rifle relay where we extended that lead. We had a number of great performances in air rifle that sealed the win. Isabella Baldwin and Marleigh Duncan both fired 597s, which are world class scores. Ryan Wee and Joshua Potts backed those scores up with impressive scores themselves of 594 and 592, respectively."
Scoring for the Star Match featured eight starters for each team in smallbore and air rifle with the top-five scores counting toward each team's final score. The NCAA scoring model of starting five shooters in each event with the top-four scores counting was still used for NCAA Championship qualification purposes.
The Mids tallied 2909 in smallbore and 2969 for its 5878 points in Army-Navy scoring, while notching 2332 in smallbore and 2377 in air rifle for its NCAA mark of 4709. The Black Knights registered 2892 and 2947, respectively, in the Star format, while posting smallbore and air rifle tallies of 2310 and 2358 in NCAA scoring.
Baldwin led all shooters on the day with an aggregate score of 1185. The score was one-point shy of her career-best performance (1186) set earlier this season at the President's Cup Match and tied at Akron / vs. Nebraska. The sophomore started the day with a score of 588 in smallbore, but elevated her aggregate total with a 597 in air rifle.
Senior Marleigh Duncan was second overall on the day with a combined score of 1180. Competing in her final Star match, Duncan opened the day with a 583 in smallbore, but notched a season-high score of 597 in air rifle to match Baldwin for the top performance in the event. She took top honors in the event hitting two more centers (54) than Baldwin (52).
Sophomore Ryan Wee gave Navy three of the top performers on the day, carding a career-high tally of 1176. Wee posted a score of 582 in smallbore before registering a career-high performance of 594 in air rifle to give him a new career-best aggregate score.
The Midshipmen had four shooters post scores in the 1160s. Junior Catherine Dely and senior Joshua Potts matched one-another with combined scores of 1168. C.Dely posted a score of 577 in smallbore to finish one shot better than Potts (576), but Potts used a career-high 592 in air rifle to edge C.Dely's career-best tally of 591. Junior Parker Haydin was one point back with a total score of 1167, turning in performances of 576 (smallbore) and 591 (air rifle). Senior team captain Stephanie Milvain carded an aggregate score of 1166 to finish one point back of Haydin. Milvain used scores of 579 (smallbore) and 587 (air rifle) to give her a final score of 1166.
Juniors Grace Shepard and Devin Uhrich followed with scorecards of 1151 and 1148, respectively. Shepard shot a career-high 592 in air rifle to go along with a 559 in smallbore. Uhrich shot above his average in air rifle, finishing the day with a 583 to go along with a 565 in smallbore for his total of 1148.
Sophomore Chelsie Glover, freshman Elizabeth Johnson, and sophomore John Dely rounded out Navy's shooters on the day. Glover posted a new career-high in smallbore (569), air rifle (578), and aggregate (1147) in her first Star competition. Johnson was consistent, finishing with a 570 in smallbore and 575 in air rifle for an 1145 aggregate score. J.Dely posted a season-high score of 1115 thanks to a season-best air rifle score of 572.