Met By History: Founded in 1802, the U. S. Military Academy is, in itself, almost an historical monument. In fact, a favorite expression at West Point is "much of the history we teach was made by people we taught."

A Place To Make History
In March, the United States Military Academy at West Point was the site of the 2003 NCAA Men's and Women's Rifle Championships. It was only fitting that, in the place that educated some of America's greatest leaders, records were broken and a little bit of history made.

It is like walking through history, a campus of stone buildings and artifacts of American history, some dating back before the Civil War. The list of people who have walked these same steps is both long and impressive, ranging from Civil War generals to the first American to walk in space. West Point had hosted the NCAA Championships three times previously, although this was the first time since 1991.

The NCAA Championships draw the top collegiate shooters from across the country. Primarily a team event, the tournament invites the top eight collegiate teams in both air rifle and smallbore. To qualify, college rifle teams must compete in regional, shoulder-to-shoulder qualifying competitions that take place in January and February. The top eight smallbore teams, the top eight air rifle teams plus the top 12 individual shooters in each event in these qualifying matches advance to the NCAA Rifle Championship in March.

Six of the eight teams invited to this year's event qualified for both championships. The teams qualifying for air rifle and smallbore were Alaska Fairbanks, Kentucky, Xavier, Murray State, Jacksonville State and Nevada-Reno. West Virginia and Tennessee Tech qualified in smallbore, while Navy and Air Force made rounded out the list of eight in air rifle.

The winner of both the team air rifle and smallbore competitions, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, continued building its own rich history. The university first sponsored a rifle team in 1937, and since 1960 has had 43 team members, both men and women, who have won All American honors. The UAF rifle team has won the NCAA Championships six times, including five in a row, and in 2002, qualified an unprecedented five athletes for the U.S. World Championship Team.

In winning this year's competition, UAF set NCAA records in team smallbore (4717) and aggregate scoring (6287). UAF's aggregate score, in fact, beat the old mark of 6234 set by West Virginia 14 years ago by 53 points.

UAF also added some impressive individual honors. UAF senior Matt Emmons broke his own NCAA record, defending his smallbore title for a third straight year, the first athlete ever to do so. He followed his individual championship record of 1191 with a 1184 in team competition. This was one shy of the NCAA record set by UAF's Kelly Mansfield in 1999. UAF freshman Jamie Beyerle took the individual air rifle honors, scoring 395 out of a possible 400.

You can see complete results of the 2003 NCAA Rifle Championship by going to the NCAA web site at http://www.ncaasports.com/rifle.

Matt Emmons of UAF breaks his own NCAA record, defending his smallbore title for a third straight year, the first to ever to do so.

Kentucky Wildcat Lindsey Meagher and Xavier's Hannah Kerr on the line at the NCAAs

Jamie Beyerle of Alaska won the 2003 NCAA Air Rifle Individual Championship