Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"October 4, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
October
4, 2002
This winter Army will unveil its newly minted Tronsrue Marksmanship Center on a national stage when the Black Knights host the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Rifle Championships, marking the national championship’s first appearance at West Point since 1991.
The rifle championships will be conducted March 14-15; it was announced recently by the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It marks the fourth time in the NCAA’s 24-year rifle history that Army has been chosen as the host site.
The Black Knights held the event twice in the 1980s, once in the 1990s and now in the 21st century. Army was the host school in 1981, the second year that the rifle championships came under the NCAA’s auspices. Current Army head coach Ron Wigger competed against the Black Knights that year as a member of Eastern Kentucky’s nationally ranked rifle team. Army finished sixth in the aggregate scoring (combined smallbore and air rifle totals) and the Colonels were fourth.
Four years later Army again hosted the event and turned in a fifth place finish, putting the touches on an 11-2 season. The NCAA Championships returned to West Point in 1991, and the Black Knights turned in a sixth-place finish in air rifle among the eight-team field. That year West Virginia won an unprecedented fourth straight team title with runner-up honors garnered by Alaska Fairbanks. The Mountaineers would go on to win two more championships, capturing six consecutive titles from 1988-93.
Today, Alaska Fairbanks ranks as the country’s No. 1 team. The four-time defending NCAA champion Nanooks are once again the favorites to repeat in their bid for their program’s sixth overall team title.
The Cadet Rifle Range was the site for the three previous NCAA Championships hosted at West Point. The Range was damaged by fire in the mid-1990s shortly after rifle moved from varsity to the club ranks. In 1997-98 rifle returned to varsity status following a three-year hiatus. Competition was still held in the Cadet Range, but Army no longer hosted the big-time meets as in years past.
Last November, Army’s rifle team moved into the newly renovated Tronsrue Marksmanship Center and the impact of the state-of-the-art facility was felt immediately as several school and individual records were broken.
Wigger, who is responsible for the resurgence of the Black Knights’ program into a national collegiate contender in just two short years at the helm, is excited that West Point will be the host site for this year’s championships.
"It is a great opportunity for us to showcase our facility, which is considered one of the finest ranges in the country," stated Wigger, whose tireless efforts were instrumental in the site selection. "Most ranges have just 12-16 firing points for both disciplines, but our facility has a total of 40. That enables us to have both events competing concurrently.
"We also have double the space that we had in the past and it gives us more flexibility in hosting a tournament of this caliber."
Last year Army qualified as a team in air rifle for the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1992 (the Black Knights competed at the club ranks from 1994-97). The Black Knights edged Navy for fifth place. Army’s most recent postseason trip in 1992 produced a sixth-place finish in smallbore and seventh overall.
"As the host school for this year’s championships, we want to be well represented at the event. Our goal is to qualify in both team disciplines along with several others meeting the individual standards," Wigger said.
Army has a challenging home slate with defending NCAA champion Alaska Fairbanks and runner-up Kentucky dotting the schedule, along with four other teams that finished in the top seven at last year’s championship.
"The top schools in the country are intrigued about our range and want to compete here prior to the NCAA Championships in the spring," explained Army’s third-year mentor. "I feel that the stringent competition will also make us a more viable team and hopefully enable us to make an impact at this year’s championship."
Army ushers in the 2002-03 season Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Tronsrue Marksmanship Center. The Black Knights host a triangular meet with Kentucky and the University of Texas-El Paso in their home opener.