Published: February 22, 2008 12:28 pm         

Three Eagle shooters earn All-OVC honors at rifle championships

Morehead State had some of its best-ever individual performances in school history at the Ohio Valley Conference rifle championships, which were held Feb. 9-10 at MSU’s Button Rifle Range.

Highlighted by Elizabeth Lyon’s second-place finish in the smallbore, three Eagle shooters earned all-conference honors, the most in a single year in Morehead State history. Lyon was named to the All-OVC Smallbore First Team, while Kevin Mulligan was named to the second team. Buoyed by his fourth-place finish in the air rifle, Shawn Holley earned First-Team honors in that discipline, while Lyon was named to the second team.

In addition, Holley and Lyon were each chosen for the All-Newcomer Team in smallbore and Holley repeated the honor in air rifle.

“Individually, we had some outstanding performances from Elizabeth Lyon, Shawn Holley and Kevin Mulligan,” said MSU coach Walt Rybka. “(However) as a team we could have used a little more effort.”

“There is no question this is one of our better teams,” he added. “The competition overall is tougher nowadays than it used to be.”

Lyon (98-98-96-93-92-96) actually tied Kevin Witbrodt’s (100-99-96-87-94-97) overall smallbore score of 573, but Witbrodt was declared the conference champion and the Smallbore Athlete of the Year based on his perfect score of 100 in the first round of prone shooting. Lyon scored a 98 on that target.

Other Morehead State smallbore scores included Mulligan (97-99-87-91-94-96) finishing in ninth with a 564, Holley (96-96-90-89-92-95) was 16th with a 558, Sara Bullock (96-99-86-90-91-95) took 17th with a 557, Nathan Lambert (97-99-85-88-88-87) placed 20th with a 544, Ed Lemley (95-93-75-81-89-88) was 24th with a 521 and Alex Bivin (96-95-39-74-83-77) finished 26th with a 464.

Tennessee-Martin’s Heather Tillson (97-98-100-99-97-98) won the individual air rifle crown and the Air Rifle Athlete of the Year honor with a 589. Holley (99-97-95-96-97-98) led the MSU contingent in fourth with a 582. Lyon (95-96-96-97-97-96) followed in eighth with a 577, Mulligan (91-91-93-96-94-96) finished in 17th in 561, while Bullock (95-93-94-90-89-93) was 20th in 554, Lemley (90-96-86-92-91-91) was 23rd in 546, Lambert (90-89-88-89-93-89) was 24th in 538 and Bivin (72-82-66-80-70-86) in 27th with a 456.

Morehead State was divided into a men’s and a women’s team at the competition. The Eagles were hurt by having to split its best shooters up by gender, but this is the last year that will be the case. The University announced recently that it would merge both the men’s and women’s teams into a single unit for competition next year.

“Next year our performances will be more predictable with a mixed team and we should score much higher,” Rybka said.

Overall, Jacksonville State won its fourth straight combined title with a total score of 4,592 edging Murray State (4,583) in the second closest championship competition in over decade. Tennessee Tech (4,479), Tennessee-Martin women (4.437), Morehead State men (4,414), Tennessee-Martin mixed (4,196) and Morehead State women (3,181) rounded out the field.

Jacksonville State’s Ron Frost was voted the conference Coach of the Year, while Tennessee-Martin’s Kaitlin Chaffin was chosen the Freshman of the Year.

Jacksonville State won its fourth straight air rifle crown with a total score of 2,324. Murray State was second with a 2,308, followed by Tennessee Tech (2,255), Tennessee-Martin women (2,246), Morehead State men (2,227), Tennessee-Martin mixed (2,147) and Morehead State women (1,587).

Murray State edged Jacksonville State to win the team smallbore competition with a mark of 2,275. The Gamecocks registered a score of 2,268, followed by Tennessee Tech (2,224), Tennessee-Martin women (2,191), Morehead State men (2,187), Tennessee-Martin mixed (2,049) and Morehead State women (1,594).

With virtually its entire team returning, Rybka is excited about next year.

“Elizabeth and Shawn have both put together very solid performances this year and that should continue next year.”