WEST POINT, N.Y. - Following a one-year hiatus, the President's Trophy Match is back home in Tronsrue Marksmanship Center following Army's domination in smallbore as the rifle team wrestled the trophy from defending champion Navy Saturday afternoon. The host Black Knights' 5789 aggregate edged the Midshipmen's 5784 by five points for the title with Air Force close behind at 5781 followed by Coast Guard (5164).

Army's 2896 five-man smallbore composite was 23 points ahead of runner-up Air Force (2873) with Navy a distant third at 2867. Three Black Knights set career highs claiming three of the top four spots among the 29 competitors. Sophomore Sara Lehman's 584 earned runner-up honors as she trailed medalist Tom Chandler of Air Force by two points along with nipping her career high by a point.

Classmate Kelly Buck followed with a career-high 581 to earn third place honors with freshman Ian Young's personal-best 580 rounding out the top four smallbore shooters.  Junior John Manzano tied with two others for fifth place (577) with freshmen Will Mengon and Chris Malachosky tying for 10th place with identical 574s. Manzano and Mengon (who posted a season best)  joined Lehman, Buck and Young in rounding out Army's counting unit.

Navy outpointed the field in air rifle with a 2917, beating runner-up air Force by nine points followed by Army (2893) and Coast Guard (2654).

Lehman and Buck were Army's lone two shooters to break into the Top 10 in air rifle after posting identical 583s in finishing fourth and fifth respectively, based on the last 10 shots. Sophomore Chris Arnett and Mengon fired respective marks of 578 and 576 to place 10th and 11th among a field of 29 shooters with Malachosky's 573 closing out Army's firing unit.

Lehman, the team leader in both disciplines, was enjoying the win with her teammates. "It is amazing for us to win the title after losing last year," noted the native of St. John's Michigan. "It was importing bring the trophy back. It is part of Army's tradition. Last year we struggled in smallbore, but it has taken off this year. "

Buck was also excited with the win but knows that next week's visit to West Virginia will be a tough challenge as the Mountaineers are very strong in air. "We need to focus," noted the sophomore, an NCAA finalist last year and ranked among Army's top shooters this year.

Head coach Ron Wigger was pleased with his team's performance in returning the President's Trophy to West Point. "We knew today's match would be close as all three academies having been performing at a high level," stated the 10th-year mentor. "We started out very strong with our performance in smallbore, but need to make progress in air rifle. We will be a very dangerous team when that happens and will be very competitive with Kentucky and West Virginia."

The Black Knights, 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the GARC, return to dual meet competition with its sternest test of the year next week when it visits defending champion West Virginia for a conference match.

NOTES: Army has captured the President's Trophy Match four of the last five years ... Navy won last year's title, snapping Army's three-year streak ... the Black Knights won the last time they hosted the match in 2006-07 ... in the four-man NCAA format, Army posted a 2308 in smallbore and 2311 in air rifle for a 4619.