Collegiate Rifle: Akron Dominates John Jay College For Another Win

It’s not really a fair comparison with John Jay being Division III and Akron being Division I, but each rifle team arrived ready to do business in Akron, Ohio, on Saturday, October 19. John Jay is posturing for a good position in the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference, while Akron continues to strive for national ranking scores leading towards the 2025 NCAA Rifle Championships.

Watching how the season is developing, it is becoming quite evident the qualifying teams will need something like three matches in the 4720s. My thoughts: Akron has exactly the proper mixture of talent to make this happen. Akron rifle has already posted three scores in the 4700s, and with just a little tweaking, we can do this.

Akron redshirt senior Gavin Perkowski, pictured here competing in smallbore with his Walther KK500 rifle, topped the individual leaderboard at the match against John Jay College with an aggregate score of 1182-84X. (Photo by Newt Engle)

Looking at the leaderboard, it is clear the match was dominated by No. 10-ranked Akron, after posting a 4705 score to John Jay’s score of 4222. It’s also clear that Akron’s redshirt senior duo of Gavin Perkowski and Erin Schnupp are battling back and forth with both rifles. Perkowski had a solid 585 smallbore score and tied his season-high air rifle score of 597, the latter earning him the top gun title in air rifle. Likewise, Schnupp took top gun in smallbore after posting a 588 score, while setting a season-high air rifle score of 592, as well as a career-high aggregate score of 1180. It is quite impressive and fun to watch these two clamoring for each and every point with the hopes of ending up with bragging rights and top gun awards.

Also worth noting is Akron junior Rachael Paddock, who was ranked in the top five, set a new season-high air rifle at 590 and tied her aggregate record of 1172.

Akron shooters on the air rifle firing line at the match against John Jay College on Saturday, Oct. 19. Starting from left, Rachel Engels, Erin Schnupp, Gavin Perkowski and Natalia Siek. As a team, Akron finished the match with a score of 2370 in air rifle. (Photo by Newt Engle)

For the John Jay College rifle team, the top shooter was junior Danny Canning, who walked away from the match in Akron with scores of 570-25X in air rifle and 545-19X in smallbore.

Results: John Jay College vs. Akron on Saturday, October 19, 2024.

Screenshot courtesy of NCAA.

You can view the full scorecard at the NCAA website.

Next weekend on Sunday, October 27, the Akron rifle squad will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to compete at the University of Kentucky Wildcats’ range in a shoulder-to-shoulder match with the No. 19-ranked University of North Georgia. Due to time and space limitations, Akron will be limited to a total of six athletes on the firing line. However, since we “shoot five, count four,” coaches will be tasked with making the best call possible on who travels. The match will commence at 9:00 a.m. ET. Targets can be viewed live at this link.

Learn more about the University of Akron and John Jay College rifle teams.