RESULTS

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Citadel rifle team dropped a home match to fifth-ranked Alaska Fairbanks Wednesday evening at Inouye Marksmanship Center. The Nanooks posted an aggregate score of 4687 while the Bulldogs' co-ed team put up a good showing by registering a season-best 4594, 10 points better than the previous season-best aggregate score.

"This was a great way to start off the second half of the season," said head coach William Smith. "You always wonder how a team will perform after a long break, against a strong team like Alaska Fairbanks and with not much preparation time, but everyone came back ready to compete and it showed today. Scores were up across the board and I couldn't be more proud of how everyone performed."

Alaska Fairbanks took the top six individual spots led by Sagen Maddalena's 1178 and Luke Johnson's 1171. Maddalena took top honors in both smallbore and air rifle, including a 596 in air.

The Bulldogs were led by junior Allison Auten's 1153 aggregate score, a mark that matched her season-best and placed her seventh overall in Wednesday's match. Auten shot her best smallbore round of the season, registering a 570 to go along with a solid 583 in air rifle. Her air rifle mark was good enough for seventh while her smallbore score placed ninth in the discipline.

Three points behind Auten was freshman Max Brabston and sophomore Alexander McAlear with matching aggregate scores of 1150. Brabston shot a 572 in smallbore while McAlear posted a 566 in the discipline before bouncing back with a 584. Both McAlear's aggregate score and air rifle score were season highs. Brabston shot a 578 in air rifle.

Senior Colton Poole rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs with an 1141, his best aggregate score of the season by seven points. Poole shot 571 in smallbore and remained consistent with a 570 in air rifle.

The Citadel women's team posted a solid 4168 to finish third on the afternoon led by Carli Cline's 1087, including a 534 smallbore score and 553 in air rifle. Lauren Pringle was second on the team with a 1046, made up of a 499 in smallbore and 547 in air rifle while Shay Littlejohn finished third on the women's team with a 1030 made up of a 479 in smallbore and a 551 in air rifle. Tierra Price rounded out the scoring for the women's team with a 1005 aggregate score made up of a 486 smallbore round and a 519 air rifle showing.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will next travel to Statesboro, Georgia, where they will take on Georgia Southern and Wofford in a SoCon tri-match on Saturday, Jan. 20. The match in Statesboro will mark the third time this season the Bulldogs will have faced the Eagles with each side claiming one match. It will also mark the second meeting between the 'Dogs and the Terriers of Wofford.

The Citadel will then return home for a tri-match against VMI and eighth-ranked Air Force on Saturday, Jan. 27.


The Citadel will host the 2018 SoCon Rifle Championships March 3-4, 2018 inside the Inouye Marksmanship Center as well as the 2018 NCAA Rifle Championships March 8-10, 2018 inside McAlister Field House. The NCAA rifle championships will mark the third national championship competition hosted at The Citadel and first since Johnson Hagood Stadium was the site of the 1983 and 1984 Division I-AA football national championship games.

For more information on The Citadel rifle team, follow @CitadelOlympic on Twitter or visit CitadelSports.com.