On Saturday, the West Virginia University Rifle team narrowly won its 20th overall NCAA Rifle National Championship, edging Kentucky, the runner-up.

The Mountaineers entered the final day of the Championship at the Memorial Coliseum in Lexington on Saturday in third place, but in the end pulled out a razor-thin single-point win over Kentucky. The final scores stood at 4738 for WVU, 4737 for Kentucky, and 4726 for third-place Alaska. Ole Miss, Georgia Southern, TCU (the 2024 champs), Air Force, and Murray State finished out the rankings. 

West Virginia completed the season with a perfect 13-0 record in regular season matches, a repeat of its 2023-24 season.

The WVU team, founded in 1951, is one of the most successful all-rifle programs in the country. Against the NCAA Division I teams in the Great America Rifle Conference – which stood up in 1980 – the Mountaineers have chalked up 20 conference championships in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988-93, 1995-98, 2009, 2013-17, and 2025. The dates roughly mirror the team's National Championships. 

Over the years, the team has also won at least 25 individual NCAA Championships and produced no less than 65 All-Americans. Meanwhile, 13 former Mountaineers have represented the country in the Olympics. Among these, Ginny Thrasher (Class of '19) picked up a Gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016, with a score of 208.0 in the 10m air rifle, breaking the Olympic record in that event. 

WVU Rifle's current coach is Jon Hammond, a former Mountaineer and two-time Olympian who has overseen seven undefeated seasons at the school. 

Since you came this far, check out the replay of both days of the NCAA Rifle Championships: 

Banner image: WVUsports.com press release.