In their penultimate regular season match, No. 16 Memphis rifle fell to No. 3 Kentucky 4,650-4,686 Saturday in the Buell Amory at the Univeristy of Kentucky.
The aggregate was Memphis’ second best total of the season. Memphis shot a 4663 aggregate against TCU back on Oct. 28, 2017.
Kentucky, Memphis and No. 19 North Georgia all participated in Saturday’s tournament. The Tigers took home second place.
Junior Leighton Dempster led the way for the Tigers, finishing with the best aggregate score. Dempster’s 1164 aggregate was her fourth best of the season. She mirrored her aggregate from the Withrow Invitational last weekend. Dempster scored the second best air rifle score for the Tigers.
Freshman Adriana Hickerson shot a career-high 593 in the air rifle discipline. The score was the second best overall air rifle total. Hickerson finished with a career-high smallbore score (564) and a career-high aggregate (1157).
Sophomore Amberlie Ezell finished with career-high scores last weekend and continued her form into this weekend’s competition. She tied her career-high in the air rifle discipline at 589.
Dempster, Levi Clark and Haylea Broughton finished in the top-10 in the smallbore discipline. Clark’s score of 578 was the sixth highest in the smallbore discipline and the highest total for the Tigers.
The Tigers finished with three in the top-five of the air rifle discipline and five in the top-10 aggregate. Dempster finished fifth, Ezell sixth, Clark seventh, Matt Dorey eighth and Hickerson 10th.
Kentucky freshman Hailee Sigmon had the best performance of the tournament. Sigmon topped the rifle discipline with a score of 596. She bested Hickerson’s air rifle total by three points. She finished first overall with an 1,175 aggregate — one point higher than her teammate Billy Azzinaro.
Senior Eli Rischling likes his teammates’ mindsets heading into the final stages of the season.
“I think we all have our heads in the right place and are enjoying the process,” Rischling said. “It’s really important on how you finish, so we are all just working hard every day to get better. Everyone is really grinding to finish good in the last match.”
Memphis rifle takes a break before traveling to No. 10 Ole Miss on Feb. 11 for the final regular season match. The Tigers will head into postseason play on Feb. 17 for the NCAA Sectional Qualifiers.
Matt Dorey poses for the camera. Dorey helped Memphis rifle finished second behind No. 3 Kentucky by an aggregate score of 4650-4686 in the Tigers second to last match of the 2017 campaign.
Adriana Hickerson helped Memphis Rifle post an aggregate score of 4650 against No.3 Kentucky. That score was the second highest total of the 2017 season.
