UK rifle team wins third national title; Tucker sweeps individual events
The University of Kentucky rifle team won its third national championship and sophomore Mary Tucker swept the smallbore and air rifle individual titles at the NCAA Rifle Championships in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend.
Tucker won the smallbore championship during Friday’s opening day of competition and the Wildcats wrapped up the team title on Saturday before Tucker bested teammate Will Shaner in the air rifle finals.
Tucker is the second Kentucky athlete to claim the NCAA individual smallbore championship, joining Ethan Settlemires, who earned the honor in 2011. She is the fifth Wildcat to claim an NCAA individual championship and the first since Henrik Larsen won the air rifle title in 2018. Tucker is the sixth person in NCAA history to sweep both individual championships.
After firing a match-best 594 in smallbore in regular competition, Tucker scored 463.3 in the 45-shot individual finals. TCU’s Stephanie Grundsoe was second with a 459.1.
UK won the team competition with an aggregate score of 4,731. TCU finished second at 4,722.
“For them to finish that strong at the end as the gap started to close a little bit … they were just phenomenal,” UK Coach Harry Mullins said. “If you go on our range there’s two signs, one on the left column, one on the right column, and it has just one word. It says ‘Finish.’
“For them to be able to hold up under the pressure of knowing every shot’s going to count … I couldn’t be more proud of what they did.”
The Wildcats entered the championships ranked second in the nation as the regular-season Great America Rifle Conference co-champions. UK’s other national titles came in 2011 and 2018, also under Mullins. The Cats have been national runner-up six times.
Last season, the undefeated Wildcats were ranked No. 1 in the country and set to host the NCAA Championships when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the competition’s cancellation.
“This is definitely a pretty big deal for this team, we had definitely been going at it for two years,” Tucker said. “It was long overdue for us. We all kind of knew that we were gonna do good … We went into it confident and came out on top.”
Skinner sisters power undefeated UK volleyball
The Skinner sisters are proving to be quite a force for the undefeated University of Kentucky volleyball team.
Senior outside hitter Avery Skinner drove home 12 kills and her sister, freshman Madi Skinner, accounted for 10 as the third-ranked Wildcats swept Mississippi 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-11) in Memorial Coliseum on Friday night.
With the win, Kentucky (15-0) maintained its two-match lead over No. 7 Florida in the Southeastern Conference standings. Following Saturday’s series finale against Mississippi, the Wildcats and Gators are scheduled to meet in Gainesville next weekend for a Friday-Saturday doubleheader.
Three title finalists for UK track
Kentucky’s Dwight St. Hillaire, Lance Lang and Abby Steiner advanced to Saturday’s finals during the preliminaries of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., on Friday.
Steiner finished first in the qualifying heat of the women’s 200-meter dash with a time of 22.52 seconds. Needing a top-eight finish to qualify for the finals, St. Hillaire finished seventh in the 400 a time of 45.97 and Lang advanced by finishing seventh in the 200 with a mark of 20.83.
UK baseball pours it on
The runs came early, then often, as the Kentucky baseball team pounded Georgia State 16-1 in the opener of a three-game series at Kentucky Proud Park on Friday.
T.J. Collett cracked a two-run homer in the first inning. UK (9-2) scored six runs in the second inning on a three-run homer from John Rhodes and a three-run double by Chase Estep.
Softball finally falls in SEC opener
The ninth-ranked Kentucky softball team suffered its first loss of the season, 3-1, at No. 5 Florida in the SEC opener for both teams Friday.
Autumn Humes (8-1) allowed three runs on six hits against the Gators’ potent lineup and pitched a complete game.
Kentucky (19-1) went ahead 1-0 in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Humes. Florida (16-1) claimed the lead on a two-RBI double by Kendyl Lindaman in the bottom of the fourth.
This story was originally published March 13, 2021 at 4:05 PM.