The team won first place in the air rifle competition and third place in the small-bore competition. It was the team�s first time competing in the small-bore category. Air rifles use compressed air to shoot a small pellet. Rifles in the small-bore competition are traditional .22-caliber rifles using gunpowder and lead bullets.

Three of the team members were named to the NRA�s All-American Air Rifle Team: Jordan Smith, a senior history major from Charlotte, N.C.; Erin Gotterbarm, a freshman psychology major from Cayce; and Amy Presher, a sophomore packaging science major from Greenville.

Other members of the team competing at the national championship were Chase Dixon, a senior biological sciences major from Anderson; Eugene Diefenbach, a senior soils and sustainable crop systems major from Fairfax Station, Va.; and Trey Jordan, a freshman general engineering major from Darlington.

The event marked the first-ever national championship tournament for collegiate air rifle teams.

�All shooters were proud of their accomplishment, as was I, and it was an even greater victory by having all the schools present to compete shoulder-to-shoulder,� said team coach John Cummings, an instructor in biological sciences. �The first name to ever be listed as the Collegiate Shooting Championship winner is Clemson. It will always be on the top of the list of the most-successful shooting teams, and I hope to see the Clemson name repeated on that list many times in the future.�

(Image provided by the Clemson Air Rifle Club.)

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