Right on target
Women’s rifle team excels in recent matches
By Sarah Chacko
Co-news Editor

Ever wonder what the rising steam on the south side of campus belongs to?

Something by the Tom Brown-Pete Wright Apartment Complex is smoking, and it’s not just the campus air conditioning system.

The TCU women’s rifle team, whose range is hidden between the University Recreation Center, the apartments and a parking lot, has been heating up.

Roger Ivy, who has been head rifle coach since the program’s creation in 1991, said women’s rifle remains a low-key sport.

“We are probably the best kept secret on campus,” Ivy said.

The women’s rifle team shoots air rifles as well as .22 caliber smallbore rifles. An air rifle match consists of 40 shots fired while standing a distance of 10 meters from the target. Individuals can score up to 400 points and teams, which consist of four members at the collegiate level, can score up to 1,600 points.

A smallbore match consists of 40 shots fired in three positions: lying down, standing and kneeling. The targets are fired at a distance of 50 feet. Individuals can score up to 1,200 points and teams up to 4,800 points.

While the team lost high scorers Jessica Green and Sherri Gallagher last semester, freshman premajor Nicole LeCompte has picked up the slack.

Senior e-business major Nina Martinez said the team chemistry has improved this year.
“At every meet we definitely get a lot closer,” she said. “It makes it a lot more fun when you get along with people around you.”

Sophomore political science and international relations major Celeste Green said team chemistry is what the team feeds off of.

“We push each other to the next level,” she said.

Green said over the past decade, the team has been improving, especially over the last two years due to recruits and growing national attention. Even as each season progresses, the competition gets stronger.

“The bigger matches help bring you up to the top,” Green said.

After completing the season’s first four matches, the team is off to a strong start.

Green, LeCompte, Jessamy Parras, a senior speech major, and Martinez all placed in the top ten with scores ranging from 380 to 369 points in the first match this year against Nevada, Reno and San Francisco. In the second match against USF, LeCompte, Martinez, Parras and junior graphic art design major Joncee Moulder placed in the top 10 with scores ranging from 374 to 352 points.

The Frogs moved on to receive high rankings in back-to-back competitions at the end of September. On Sept. 27, the Purple team took seventh place at the Memphis Tiger Invitational with a team score of 1,444. The next day, both the Purple and White teams placed in the Ole Miss Invitational, where Purple took sixth place with a score of 1,478, and White took seventh with a score of 1,313.

The team hosted the 13th annual Rifle Horned Frog Invitational last weekend. It was the team’s first competition this season to include smallbore. The Purple team placed third in smallbore with a score of 4,355 and fourth in air rifle with a score of 1,502.

Green earned fourth place in individual performances in both events with 1,158 points in smallbore and 385 points in air rifle.

The Frogs’ next match is Oct. 25 against Air Force.