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Navy Rifle Hosts John Jay in NCAA Qualifier on Saturday

Mids aim to qualify for 17th straight NCAA appearance this weekend.

	Monica Amagna and her teammates will shoot in the NCAA Qualifier this weekend in Annapolis.

Feb. 15, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy rifle team will compete this Saturday in an NCAA Qualifier against John Jay at the Bancroft Rifle Range in Annapolis, beginning at 9:00 am. Every Division I rifle program in the country will be firing at various sites this weekend for a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships being hosted by Army in mid-March, and the scores this weekend count for half of the total in the NCAA's qualifying procedures.

The mark posted from the NCAA Qualifier will be added to a team's three-score average in rounding out the qualification formula. The NCAA will then take the eight highest averages for the NCAA Championships. Navy has advanced to 16 consecutive NCAA Championships.

"As usual, we find ourselves in a pressure-packed situation. Our current average is high enough to make the NCAA Championships, but quite frankly our goal tomorrow is to put up a season-high score and not have to worry about what others do," said Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "The race is very close for the final spots, but the fate is in our own hands. If we shoot well on Saturday, we will go. If we don't shoot well, we won't go."

The Mids are looking to redeem themselves after a tough loss last weekend to Army. The Black Knights shot a season-high score and defeated the Midshipmen by almost 100 points.

"We have had a great week of practice and a lot of is because we were humiliated last week," said Kelley. "We want to go out and prove that we are better than what we showed last weekend. We want to prove we belong with the best teams in the country and the kids have really responded in practice."

Kelley will use a lineup of Josh Albright, Monica Amagna, Lisa Kunzelman, Alison Lankes and Chris Burleson. Unlike the regular-season competitions where coaches can use up to eight shooters, the NCAA requires just five people be used for the Qualifier.

Albright leads the Mids with 1157.6 overall average, including a team-best 577.3 in the smallbore discipline. Albright, last year's NCAA smallbore champion, has recorded five of the top seven smallbore scores and the top seven overall scores by a Navy shooter this year. Freshman Alison Lankes ranks second on the team in smallbore at 570.5, and senior Monica Amagna is third at 567.5.

In air rifle, junior Lisa Kunzelman paces the team with a 589.3. Her current average would best the school record of 588.9 set by Matt Albright in 2004-05. Kunzelman has scored at least 590 four different times this year, including a stellar 594 against Army last weekend. The score is tied for the second-best air rifle score in school history. Albright is next at 580.2 and Amagna is third on the team with a 577.2

The Mids recorded a season-best team score of 4651 this year, coming against the University of the Sciences on Jan. 26.

Following the NCAA Qualifier, the Mids will compete in the MAC Championship on March 2, at a site to be determined.

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