Aiming to Be the Best

Women’s Rifle Team Has a New, State-of-the-Art Facility and Will Soon Join a New Conference

The Georgia Southern women’s rifle team is on a roll. It ended the first half of the 2015-16 season with a meet that saw the team set four school and six personal records. Standout freshman Rosemary Kramer delivered two perfect relays during the season — scoring 100 points in her first 10 shots from the prone position on the small bore during the fall’s last meet. She also scored a perfect relay in the season opener on paper targets with the air rifle. The team has been ranked in or near the nation’s top 20 programs all fall. This spring the program kicked off 2016 with a meet at the Citadel and now they’ll be gunning for a trip to the national championships this March.

In 2016-17, the team will return to competition in the Southern Conference as an associate member. The Eagles join fellow associate members North Georgia and UAB as well as full members VMI, Wofford and The Citadel to compete for the co-educational championship. The conference becomes just the second Division I league to sponsor rifle, joining the Ohio Valley Conference, and will conduct an annual conference championship including the air rifle and small bore disciplines to determine the league champion.

A New Home

The team’s new home, the Shooting Sports Education Center (above and at left), opened last fall and provides a much-needed indoor space — and one of the finest ranges in the region — for student-athletes to practice. It can host competitions with seating for spectators and provides areas for the University’s championship-winning archery club team. The facility is also open to the public offering students and community members a comprehensive center for education, training, competition and recreation.