Xavier University Athletics
Rifle Places Third in NCAAs
03.16.02 | General
The Musketeers shot a combined score of 6204, just one off their season average. Alaska-Fairbanks won its fourth straight title with a score of 6241, while Kentucky placed second with a 6209.
Xavier placed third in smallbore with a team score of 4656 and fourth in air rifle with a 1548.
Freshman Hannah Kerr (Hopewell, N.J./Hunterdon) led Xavier with a personal best 394 in air rifle and an 1179 in smallbore. On Friday, Kerr finished second in smallbore in the NCAA Individual Championship and fifth in air rifle.
Junior Thrine Kane (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun), a 2000 Olympian, was second for Xavier in both, shooting 389 in air rifle and 1171 in smallbore for Xavier.
Senior Danielle Langfield (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park) shot an 1157 in smallbore and a 385 in air rifle and junior Joe Fitzgibbon added an 1152 in smallbore and a 380 in air rifle.
Xavier?s third place finish marks the sixth time since 1990 that the Musketeers placed in the top five, and is XU?s third straight finish in the top four. Xavier was second in the 2000 NCAA Championship and fourth last year.
In 1996, Xavier won the NCAA Air Rifle Championship.
Xavier rifle coach Alan Joseph has placed individual shooters in 15 consecutive NCAA Championships and has led the Musketeers to 10 Championships as a team, including four straight.
Following the conclusion of the Championship, the NRA named its All-Americans for the 2001-02 season. Kerr, the Great America Rifle Conference Shooter and Rookie of the Year, was named First Team All-American in smallbore and air rifle.
For the third year in a row, Kane was named an All-American in both disciplines. She was named to the First Team for Air Rifle and Second Team for smallbore.
Langfield earned the third All-America honor of her career as she was named to the smallbore Second Team.
With this year?s citations, Xavier has now had 15 different shooters win 43 All-American honors since 1990.
In addition, all six members of the Xavier rifle team (Sivan Barazani, Fitzgibbon, Kane, Hannah Kerr, Scott Kerr and Langfield) earned the All-Academic Collegiate Coaches Award for their academic achievements.
