The NCAA Rifle Championship was held at Ohio State University March 10-11, 2017. The team National Championship went to the powerful West Virginia University squad. The No. 2-ranked WVU Mountaineers rifle team claimed its fifth straight NCAA title in commanding fashion, shooting a championship-record 4723 Aggregate score at Ohio State’s French Field House. This was the Mountaineers’ nineteenth national championship, a remarkable record of excellence.

WVU shooters also secured top honors — the individual titles were both won by West Virginia freshman. Morgan Phillips won the small-bore titles on March 10, 2017. Milica Babic won the air rifle championship the next day.

The Mountaineers’ NCAA championship five-peat is the third in the sport since 1980. WVU previously won six straight titles from 1988-1993, and Alaska-Fairbanks won six straight from 1999-2004.

NCAA Rifle Championship Rules

The NRA Blog has listed some of the more important rules in effect for the NCAA Rifle Championship.

Modern Electronic Targets
The 2017 NCAA Championships used electronic targets, with monitors at each shooting station. That allows spectators to view the scoring in real time. For air rifle, shot at 10 meters, and smallbore, shot at 50 feet, all NCAA competitions using electronic scoring targets shall comply with USA Shooting Rule 6.3.2 and be at least ISSF Phase I approved.

Max Rifle Weight is 8kg (17.64 lbs)
The maximum weight for a complete smallbore rifle cannot exceed 8 kilograms. Previously, a maximum weight of 6.5 kilograms was imposed for female shooters, but as of this season, both men and women can use up to an 8 kg rifle. [Editor: That’s actually a pretty heavy rifle to hold off-hand in the standing stages — it approaches the weight of an F-TR rifle.]

Single Shot Only
NCAA shooters aren’t worried about magazine capacity. Only single shot rifles that must be manually loaded before each shot are permitted in competition. Additionally, only one rifle can be used in the Elimination, Qualification and Finals rounds of an event. The action, barrel and stock cannot be changed, but the shooter can swap detachable buttstocks or accessories (subject to 8kg weight limit).

You can read the latest May 2015 edition of Shooting Sports USA for free. This issue covers the 2015 NRA Intercollegiate Rifle Club Championship and includes an exclusive interview with 2015 NCAA Smallbore Rifle Champion Rachel Martin. If you like classic target rifles, you should definitely read the “Yesterday’s Rifle” article. This recounts America’s program to develop a winning Smallbore Rifle for the 1924 Paris Olympics. The full May 2015 issue of Shooting Sports USA is embedded below.

If you want to read the May issue in a larger, dual-page format, CLICK THIS LINK.

Use Scroll Bar on Right to Move Forward or Back.

Report by Kyle Jillson for NRABlog.com
This year you can catch all the action at the 2013 NCAA Rifle Championships in real time thanks to a live stream from the match venue in Columbus, Ohio. Just hop on over to the NCAA Live website and dive right in. (The NCAA also provides live streaming coverage of other winter championship events.) The individual finals are set to stream live at 4:30 pm Eastern time.

CLICK HERE for NCAA Rifle Championship LIVE STREAM.

Relay #3 is underway now (as this story is released) and the finals begin at 4:30 PM Eastern. In Relay #1, Alaska-Fairbanks’ Ryan Anderson took the lead with a 586-35X. After shooting a perfect 200 from prone, Anderson faltered slightly while standing and shot a 191, dropping nine. In kneeling, the final leg, he warded off the other shooters in his relay with a 195 to stay at the top.

Photos courtesy NRA Media Relations, some rights reserved.