Feb. 22, 2012

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army rifle team was among the eight-team field announced this afternoon on the NCAA Selection Show. The Black Knights (9-3, 4-2 GARC) earned their ninth straight trip to the NCAA Championships being hosted by Ohio State on March 9-10 at the Converse Hall and French Field House in Columbus, Ohio.

The fourth-ranked Black Knights trail No. 1 TCU, No. 2 Kentucky and No. 3 West Virginia in rounding out the top teams in the field. The Wildcats (11-1, 6-0 GARC) are the defending NCAA champions whose lone loss this season was to the Horned Frogs (12-0), who posted their 31st regular-season decision in their win over Air Force at their NCAA Qualifier.

Rounding out the rest of the field are Alaska-Fairbanks, Jacksonville State, Nevada and UTEP. The individuals selected to participate will be announced on Thursday.

The top eight teams in both the smallbore three-position and air rifle events were selected based on the average of the three highest regular-season aggregate scores with no more than one match at any given site. The average of the three highest scores was added to the aggregate scores from the designated qualifiers to determine the top eight teams.

Individual and team competitions in smallbore three-position (60 shots) will be held Friday, March 9. Individual and team competitions in air rifle (60 shots) will be held Saturday, March 10. The overall team champion will be determined by combining the smallbore and air rifle team total scores into one aggregate score for each institution.

Army turned in a strong performance at its NCAA Qualifier over the weekend posting a 4666 to tie for its second highest score of the season, along with posting its second-best air rifle score (2349). The Black Knights' nine wins this season are their highest since posting 10 in 2007-08, while their three losses were to the top three teams in the country- TCU, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Army will be tested this weekend competing at the GARC Championships following a third-place (4-2) finish during the regular-season. Kentucky and West Virginia are members of the conference with the Wildcats (6-0) capturing their second straight regular-season title and looking to take the title from the reigning champion Mountaineers (5-1) who they defeated earlier this month.

"Having the GARC Championship before the NCAAs gives us a chance to get one more match in prior to going to that tournament," said head Army coach Ron Wigger, who is closing out his 12th season at the helm.

"The conference championships follows the same format as the NCAAs. The top-level competition provided by Kentucky and West Virginia gives our team an opportunity to further hone their skills before going to the NCAAs.

"I have been very impressed with the progress the team made from last year to this year," continued Wigger. "We climbed up the polls, having been eighth at the NCAAs last year and fourth going in this year. We made significant progress.

"If the stars line up and if we have our top performance of the year at the NCAAs and if the other teams are a bit down and not on their game, we have a realistic shot of beating them. We are not the favorite as the fourth seed, but when you get to the NCAA Championships a lot can happen. I feel we have a legitimate shot if we put it all together."

In 2005 Army surprised the NCAA field capturing its first NCAA title after nipping Jacksonville State by a point. The Black Knights finished runner-up in 2007 and 2008 along with a third in 2006.