No. 10 NC State Rifle Takes Top Spot at SEARC 6

Sunday, January 24

The Citadel - Charleston, S.C.

All Day

NC State

4650

SEARC 6

1/24/2016 6:05:00 PM | Rifle

Sophomore Derya Pekari fires a career best 590 in air rifle

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The 10^th-ranked NC State rifle team remained unbeaten in South Eastern Air Rifle Conference (SEARC) competition with a dominating performance Sunday to finish first at SEARC 6.

The Wolfpack fired a team score of 4650 (2302 SB, 2348 AR) to move to 23-3 overall and 17-0 in SEARC action. North Georgia finished second with a team score of 4559, while Georgia Southern was third at 4443.

The Citadel men's team took fourth with a 4403 tally and the women's team was fifth at 4342. Georgia Military College rounded the team's competing with a total of 4207.

Miller's Minute
"Our air rifle scores all year have been very consistent," said head coach Keith Miller. "Most of our scores have been between 2347 and 2354, so today's 2348 was right there. The nice thing was to see two of our shooters in the 590s again. This time it was Derya [Pekari] joining Lucas [Kozeniesky]. Her 590 is a great score and six points higher than her prior plateau of 584. It was really good to see her break the 590 barrier. Now four of our shooters have done so this season. That is a great sign of the progress of our overall program.

"As for smallbore, while we're still a bit inconsistent, our results today were pretty good. With Caitlyn's [Ford] 583, Lucas' 581, Derya's 576, and Will's [Marciniak] 562 we were able to shoot better than 2300 for the fourth time this season. If we can keep pushing up our smallbore scores and maintain our current performance level in air rifle, we have a good chance to move up in the rankings. The scores are quite tight in the top ten, but we have the skills, the drive, and the confidence to be in the thick of the race to the NCAA Championships."

Worth Noting
- Sophomore Derya Pekari turned in a stellar performance, recording career best scores in all three disciplines. The Rota, Spain, native fired a 590 in air rifle and 576 in smallbore to tally an aggregate total of 1166.
- Classmate Caitlyn Ford also recorded a personal-best score with a 583 clip in the smallbore event to finish in first place.
- Cullen Wargo, a freshman from Palmyra, Pa., also enjoyed a career day, charting personal bests in all three events. He fired a 572 in air rifle and 559 in smallbore to compile an 1131 aggregate total.
- In smallbore, freshman Claire Spina tallied a career best with a score of 566.

Inside the Match
- In smallbore, NC State registered a team score of 2302. Ford headlined the event for the Wolfpack with a score of 583 to take first place.
- Junior Lucas Kozeniesky tied for second with a score of 581, while Pekari was fourth at 576.
- William Marciniak and Alex Martin rounded out the Wolfpack's counting shooters with scores of 562 and 552, respectively.

- Kozeniesky claimed first place in the air rifle discipline with a score of 592 and Pekari finished closely behind with her career-best total of 590 for second place.
- Ford's tally of 587 was good for third, while Martin ended seventh with a 579.
- Junior Daniel Cliff rounded out the lineup for the Pack and fired a score of 578.

- Kozeniesky fired the best aggregate score at 1173.

Match Scores

	Smallbore	Air Rifle	Aggregate Total
Lucas Kozeniesky	581	592	1173
Caitlyn Ford	583*	587	1170
Derya Pekari	576*	590*	1166*
Daniel Cliff	563	578	1141
Claire Spina	566*	568	1134
William Marciniak	562	569	1131
Cullen Wargo	559*	572*	1131*
Alex Martin	552	579	1131
Tyler Lefebvre	547	574	1121
George Williams	549	569	1118
Team Totals	2302	2348	4650

*Indicates career best

Up Next
NC State will next be in action at top-ranked West Virginia Saturday, Jan. 30. Action is slated to get underway at 8 a.m. inside the WVU Rifle Range.