UK rifle takes down Navy to move to 2-0 on the season

Pranavdeep Singh

Freshman Henrik Larsen had another record-breaking performance on Sunday morning for the UK rifle team, paving the way for the Cats to another win.

The No. 3 Cats fired a 4711, and beat the No. 13 United States Naval Academy who fired a 4033 at the Buell Armory and Barker Hall.

UK fired 2335 in smallbore, nearing what they had last week against Ole Miss, and 2376 in air rifle, one of their highest scores in recent action. This is the first time that the Cats have fired over 4700 mark in the first two matches of the season, led by Larsen.

Larsen came close to breaking his own record a week after setting it. The Mysen, Norway native, in only his second match for the Cats, put on another show as he fired a 593 in smallbore and a 598 in air rifle for a combined score of 1191. Larsen again led his team in both smallbore and air rifle.

“We compete against other schools, but we also more so compete against ourselves, in that sense, and I think having the challenge to perform against the target again, with a good opponent on the line,” said head coach Harry Mullins. “Those are tough numbers to follow when you are playing at that level, I was very proud of him (Larsen), he shot a 598 air rifle, and a 593 smallbore, those are huge numbers.”

Junior Cathryn Papasodora was close behind Larson as she fired a 581 smallbore, and a 594 air rifle for an aggregate of 1175.

Hannah Carr finished with a 579 in smallbore and a 594 in air rifle. Billy Azzinaro ultimately finished with a 571 smallbore and a 590 air rifle.

UK, now 2-0, will look to build off their strong performance this early in the season and host the No. 16 Morehead State Eagles on Oct. 21.