Kentucky rifle opened its season with a 4727-4661 win over Morehead State on Saturday, Oct. 14, at the UK Rifle Range in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Wildcats started off the season strong by scoring one of the highest smallbore team scores nationally in the new season with 2352. UK won the match with a 2375 in air rifle, totaling the team score to 4727.
Morehead State scored a 2302 in smallbore and 2359 in air rifle, trailing UK by 66 points and finishing with 4661.
Sophomore Sofia Ceccarello carried the highest score of all teammates with an 1190 aggregate, notching a 591 in smallbore and a 599 in air rifle.
Fifth-year senior Emmie Sellers tied a career-high in smallbore with a 586, shooting a perfect 200 in prone.
Meanwhile, fellow fifth-year Jaden Thompson scored a 585 in smallbore and set a new career-high in air rifle with a 596, tying her career-high overall score of 1181.
“Today was a very good start to the season for us,” Kentucky Head Coach Harry Mullins said to UK Athletics. “I am proud of some things that we saw today and how we battled through some adversity as well. Another great performance by Sofia and it was great to see Jaden and Emmie both have really strong matches in both smallbore and air rifle. We know we have a lot of improvements to make and it will be good to see how the team does in training the next two weeks before we go to the Navy later this month.”
Kentucky was eight points short of beating its smallbore record of 2360.
Cecerello was a star performer for the team during opening weekend, earning a 591 in smallbore, including 199 while kneeling and 199 in prone.
Freshman Braden Peiser had a successful collegiate debut as well, scoring a 590 in smallbore, posting a 199 in prone.
Sophomore Martin Voss was on the first relay and scored a 582 while junior Allison Buesseler, who was also on the relay, scored a 578.
In the second relay, sophomore AJ Hotko and freshman Emily Marne posted a 557 and 556 respectively.
The Wildcat’s air rifle performance was equally as strong, earning a 2375. Ceccarello set another high standard for the team with a 599.
Saturday marked the first of four home matches inside Barker Hall. The Wildcats will compete again at Navy on Saturday, Oct. 28.
