The Murray State rife team was third in the first ranking released by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association of the 2016-2017 season to utilize the three-score system used by the NCAA for championship qualification. The ranking average each team’s top three performances at three different sites of competition. In February, the NCAA will use those three scores and each team’s score in the NCAA qualifier to determine the eight-team championship field.
The Racers’ current three-score average is 4717.0, just 2.7 points behind second-ranked West Virginia at 4719.7 and 7.7 behind current leaders TCU. MSU is currently 22.3 points clear of fourth place Air Force and 49.7 points ahead of Nebraska, which currently sits in the eighth and final spot for March’s NCAA Championship.
Just 15 points separate No. 6 Ohio State and No. 11 North Carolina State in the first three-score ranking. The relatively small margin leaves the two schools and four others, Alaska Fairbanks, Nebraska, Nevada and Memphis, jockeying for the final three spots in the eight team-field over the course of the final weeks of the season.
Murray State will return to action on January 14 in Oxford, Mississippi in a tri-match against No. 5 Kentucky and No. 13 Ole Miss. Meanwhile, No. 2 West Virginia and No. 7 Alaska Fairbanks will represent the first action of 2017 when they square off on January 10 in Morgantown. Top-ranked TCU won’t return to action until January 21 when it hosts Coast Guard and Ohio State in Fort Worth.
by Parker Griffith
