West Virginia University earned a hard-fought victory at the 2025 NCAA rifle championship, held at the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky, from March 14-15. The win marks the 20th NCAA rifle title in program history for the Mountaineers—the most for any school since the championship’s inception in 1980.
Coming down to the wire, WVU rallied after entering the air rifle competition in third place on Saturday, March 15, closing a 10-point gap from smallbore with the top two teams, Alaska-Fairbanks and Kentucky.
It all came down to the final shot in air rifle, with WVU senior Natalie Perrin firing a 10.1 to cement the victory for the Mountaineers. You can’t ask for a better way to conclude a collegiate rifle career.
WVU’s two best performances over the course of the championship were from Perrin, who posted a 598-53X score in air rifle and 592-37X in smallbore, along with sophomore Griffin Lake with 597-51X in air rifle and 591-43X in smallbore. Perrin’s aggregate score of 1190-90X was good for third place on the two-gun individual leaderboard and only one point behind top-ranked shooter Rachael Charles of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (1191-101X), while Lake was ranked fourth with 1188-94X.
Besides winning the two-gun aggregate championship, WVU also secured this year’s air rifle title with a score of 2388-210X, along with third place in smallbore with 2350-145X.
For Head Coach Jon Hammond, who has been the WVU rifle team’s coach for 19 years, this year’s win at the NCAA rifle championship marked the seventh for the Mountaineers under his tenure. In addition, this year’s victory ended an eight-year title drought for WVU rifle, whose last NCAA championship was back in 2017 after five consecutive wins at the competition.
“It was certainly as close as we’ve had in a long time,” Hammond said. “It’s emotional for me because it’s been a bit of a ride—eight years since we last won. The team this year has been amazing, they worked so hard. It’s been a long time since the championship has come down to the last shot. I feel really fortunate we were able to come through today and have the comeback that we did.”
Taking second place in the two-gun aggregate was host school and four-time NCAA rifle champion University of Kentucky with 4737-333X. The Wildcats’ top shooter across both disciplines was sophomore Braden Peiser with 599-54X in air rifle and 591-39X in smallbore. His air rifle score was tied with Texas Christian University’s Katie Zaun for the second highest fired in regulation.
In third place was 11-time NCAA rifle champion University of Alaska-Fairbanks with a score of 4726-338X. Leading the way for the Nanooks was junior Rachael Charles with 596-54X in air rifle and 595-47X in smallbore. Behind Charles was graduate student Cecelia Ossi with 591-44X in air rifle and 593-39X in smallbore.
SMALLBORE
With a score of 2355-147X, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks won the 2025 NCAA smallbore team national championship title by one point over the University of Kentucky, the latter posting a score of 2354-135X.
The top smallbore shooter for Alaska-Fairbanks was junior Rachael Charles with a score of 595-47X, followed by graduate student Cecelia Ossi with 593-39X, senior Sára Karasová with 585-28X, plus two freshmen—Lucie Kissenberger with 582-33X and Amanda Pettersen with 581-27X.
For runner-up Kentucky, the rifle team’s high score came from sophomore Braden Peiser, who posted a score of 591-39X. Taking third place in smallbore was WVU with 2350-145X, led by senior Natalie Perrin with a score of 592-37X.
In the smallbore individual championship, it was Alaska-Fairbanks’ Cecelia Ossi who won the title, walking away with a final score of 464.7. Competing in the first smallbore relay on Friday morning, Ossi exited regulation with 593-39X, the second highest score posted after both relays were finished. Her best series in regulation was a perfect 100 score during the second kneeling portion.
Ossi triumphed over seven other shooters in the final, including fellow Alaska-Fairbanks rifle team competitor Rachael Charles, Katie Zaun (both TCU), Braden Peiser, Sofia Ceccarello and Elizabeth Probst (all three from Kentucky), Griffin Lake and Natalie Perrin (both WVU).
After five competitors were eliminated in the smallbore final, it came down to Ossi, Charles and Zaun. The three shooters wrapped up the final in standing position, like all NCAA smallbore rifle finals. Zaun was the first from the trio to leave the final after firing a 9.8, losing to Charles with 10.6 and Ossi with 10.7.
For the last shot in the smallbore final, Ossi shot a 10.7 to Charles’ 9.7, ranking the former in second place and giving the Nanooks a one-two punch on the smallbore individual championship podium with Ossi the winner. The victory also marked Ossi’s second career NCAA smallbore individual title after her previous win in 2023, when she was with the Nebraska Cornhuskers rifle team.
AIR RIFLE
The West Virginia University rifle team notched a score of 2388-210X to secure this year’s air rifle title. WVU’s score was five points ahead of runner-up Ole Miss, the latter walking away with a score of 2383-207X.
WVU was buoyed by solid performances from senior Natalie Perrin and freshman Ashlyn Blake. Across both relays, the top individual shooter for the Mountaineers in air rifle was Perrin, who posted a score of 598-53X. As for Blake, she was not too far behind Perrin on the individual air rifle leaderboard with a score of 597-52X.
The top shot for Ole Miss in air rifle was freshman Audrey Gogniat with a mind-boggling, nearly perfect score of 600-58X. (More about her later.)
Taking third place in air rifle was Kentucky with a score of 2383-198X. Sophomore Braden Peiser was the top shot for the Kentucky in air rifle with 599-54X, followed by junior Sofia Ceccarello with a score of 597-51X.
The air rifle team competition was tight at the 2025 NCAA championship, with three of the top four teams—Ole Miss, Kentucky and the Air Force Academy—separated by only one point. And in the battle for seventh place, Alaska-Fairbanks edged out Murray State University by only four Xs, 2371-191X to 2371-187X.
Audrey Gogniat of Ole Miss claimed the 2025 NCAA air rifle individual championship on Saturday after winning the final with a score of 251. A freshman from Le Noirmont, Switzerland, Gogniat entered the final as the top-ranked shooter with a score of 600-58X in air rifle regulation. She was only two Xs away from a completely perfect score, which would have been unprecedented in the history of the NCAA rifle championship. In addition, Gogniat was the 10 meter air rifle bronze medalist at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games last summer, earning the medal while competing for her home country of Switzerland.
In the final, Gogniat faced seven of the best collegiate air rifle shooters in the country, including Braden Peiser (Kentucky), Ashlyn Blake and Natalie Perrin (both WVU), Carlotta Salafia (Murray State), Katie Zaun (TCU), Victoria Leppert and Lauren Hurley (both Air Force).
Gogniat did not relinquish the top spot during the air rifle final until six shooters had been eliminated. The only thing standing between her and the title was Kentucky’s Braden Peiser, who was last year’s runnerup. For the 23rd shot, Gogniat fired a 10.2 to Peiser’s 10.9, giving the Kentucky shooter an opportunity to close the gap, as the score was now 240.5 to 240.3. Next, for shot 24, Gogniat again could not match Peiser, with the latter shooting a 10.7 to Gogniat’s 10.5. The result was a tie at 251. For the final tiebreaker shot, Gogniat fired a 10.6 to win the 2025 NCAA air rifle title, while Peiser fired a 9.8 and had to settle for runner-up for the second consecutive year.
2025 NCAA RIFLE CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD
NCAA RIFLE CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY SINCE 1980
The NCAA rifle championship began in 1980 and has been contested 45 times since then. The best four scores from each team’s roster are recorded in air rifle and smallbore, with the team posting the highest combined total of points (aggregate) winning the championship. By far, West Virginia University has the most wins with 20, followed by the University of Alaska-Fairbanks with 11 victories.
Next year’s NCAA rifle championship will be held at Ohio State University’s St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio. You can learn more about the 2026 NCAA rifle championships at ncaa.com.
