North Carolina State University Athletics
Showdown at the SEARC Championships
3/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Rifle
March 16, 2011
To see some of the sharpest shooters this basketball season, walk into a remote area of Reynolds Coliseum, deep into the storied arena's basement.
That’s where NC State’s rifle team does part of its practicing, where sophomores Bryan Cross and William Teller have blasted many targets, set their sights on lofty goals, and bonded as teammates.
That camaraderie also is what added anxiety and awkwardness to the SEARC tournament one month ago, where the teammates became temporary foes in a finals shootout which determined the Air Rifle individual champion.
“It was tough... nerve wracking,” said Cross, whose ambivalent attitude included wanting to win and also wanting his teammate to shoot well.
Teller held a slim lead going into the championship round of 10 shots from 10 meters. But a cool Cross rallied to claim the crown with a career best 102 score, which included seven hits on the half-millimeter center he described as the size of a "period.”
That’s not as simple as saying "Ready... Aim... Fire!"
“I had to try to calm myself down,’’ said Cross, who finished third in the 2010 tournament. “{It was) relaxation techniques, taking my time, taking a few breaths before shooting so my heart was not beating too fast.”
Whatever, it worked.
“He was very cool and even,’’ said coach Keith Miller. “When he does that, he’s a good solid shooter. He’s the hardest worker on the team. Sometimes he works himself too hard. We’ve had to manage this.”
Teller did not shoot with his customary accuracy in the finals, but joined Cross on the All-Conference team. Both wanted more -- to lead the Pack to a fifth straight team title, but had to settle for a runner-up finish behind The Citadel.
COMMON TRAITS
Cross, from Higganum, Conn., and Teller, from King and Queen, Va., followed similar paths to State and shooting success.
As youngsters they began firing at targets with their dads, then joined Gun Clubs in addition to participating in other sports. (Teller played baseball and Cross ran track and played football his freshman year in high school).
But they were more gung-ho about guns, became dead-eyed marksmen with a knack for hitting the bulls eye and saw shooting as a better opportunity to compete in Division I college athletics.
“I felt this was the sport in which I would have the most potential,’’ said Cross, a criminology major carrying a 3.92 grade point average and on track to graduate in three years.
Teller, an erudite nuclear engineering major, liked baseball but figured his future rested in a rifle rather than a bat.
While Teller has never shot an apple off anybody’s head -- like folk legend William Tell reportedly did -- he's a superb shooter fascinated with the sport's challenges.
“It’s a big, mental game,’’ he said. “Teaches perseverance, confidence, concentration. I enjoy it.”
GOLF MENTALITY
Coach Miller, a former Wolfpack Rifle team captain with an engineering degree, calls shooting a “mental management” exercise similar to golf.
That’s why his teaching package includes relaxation techniques and mental imagery as well as physical fitness workouts, attention to nutrition, and placing shooters in adverse practice situations that simulate match stress.
It’s all designed to help his men and women perform in “smooth and steady” fashion, like Cross executed in the SEARC showdown.
"One parent told me he was cucumber cool,'' Miller injected.
Since joining a conference in 1996, Miller has guided the Pack to five league championships and a top 20 national ranking despite having always traveling and competing on the road.
Needed is a complete rifle range, which is in the talking stage at State. However, the Pack will get a full NCAA allotment of 3.6 scholarships next year, which should enhance recruiting.
“We want to improve facilities,” Miller said. “(But) we are stable. We should improve a good chunk next year.”
With top guns Cross and Miller among returning veterans and promising prospects on the way, it seems the State will be adequately armed again.
-- By A.J. Carr
