WVU Rifle won their 18th GARC Tournament Title and their fourth consecutive in as many seasons. They also swept the regular-season and tournament titles for the third consecutive season. Swimming and Diving also competed in the Big 12 Championships, while Track and Field competed in the Big 12 Indoor Championships. Gymnastics and Tennis were also in action recently. Read more: Weekend round-up: Rifle sweeps GARC Tournament.
Rifle
WVU Rifle had a busy weekend as they competed in the Great America Rifle Conference Championship on Saturday and Sunday, February 28 and March 1. They led after Saturday with a smallbore score of 2358. Griffin Lake and Lauri Syrja finished second and third overall, and led the Mountaineers with scores of 591 and 589, respectively.
Rifle finished the tournament with an aggregate score of 4740. WVU won the 2026 GARC Tournament, marking the fourth consecutive season it has won it. It is the third consecutive time they have claimed the regular season and tournament titles.
Related: WVU coasts to a victory against Cincinnati on Senior Day
WVU finished behind Kentucky in air rifle with a score of 2382. Griffin Lake took home gold in air rifle, while Camryn Camp finished fifth. Lake finished third on the overall leaderboard, Camp finished fifth, Syrja finished eighth, and Jacob Wisman finished tenth.
The next event for WVU is on March 13 at 9 a.m. EST. The 2026 NCAA Rifle National Championship in Columbus, Ohio, is a two-day event from the Covelli Center.
Track & Field
WVU competed in the Big 12 Indoor Championships and finished T-13, but had some outstanding individual performances. Annishka McDonald placed third in the high jump and set a new personal best of 1.84 meters. It is also a new WVU indoor school record.
Joy Naukot finished second in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:52.13, and Anastasia Chepkorir finished tenth with a time of 16:38.87. Olivia Cress set a personal best in the pentathlon with a score of 3,994. Freshman Eva Craigie set a personal best in the long jump with a jump of 5.48 meters. The distance medley team of Mary Delaney, Lily Haught, Kishay Rowe, and Mercy Kinyanjui finished fifth with a time of 11:24.88.
Mercy Kinyanjui finished tenth in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:15.05, while Chepkorir (9:27.35) and Ronis Chelangat (9:29.89) finished in the top 20. The 4×400 was WVU’s final event, and they set a new personal best of 3:43.14. The team, made up of Haught, Rowe, Cress, and Cate Pickering, ran the second fastest time in program history.
Swimming & Diving
The 2026 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships were held in a five-day meet starting February 24 and ending on February 28. Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, hosted the event, where WVU finished seventh in the men’s standings and tenth in the women’s standings.
The men’s 800-yard freestyle relay team of Nick Lugo, Vedaant Madhavan, Christian Simpson, and Max Nielsen posted a time of 6:27.89 on the first day, which ranks third all-time in program history. Simpson won the C final of the men’s 200-yard freestyle two days later with the second-fastest time (1:35.37) in program history.
Redshirt senior Natasha Whittall posted the best time of her career in the women’s 100-yard backstroke. She finished in 53.49, just a second off the program record.
Gymnastics
WVU Gymnastics hosted No. 24 BYU in a meet on February 27. They lost 195.975 to 195.275. It was the final home event of the season, and they recognized their senior class, comprised of Brooke Irwin, Carlee Nelson, Olivia Pitzer, and Miranda Smith. They posted scores of 48.875 on vault, 48.8 on uneven bars, 48.55 on balance beam, and 49.05 on floor exercise.
They had a tri-meet at Towson on Sunday, March 1, and finished with a season-best 196.35 to finish in second place. No. 22 NC State won with a score of 197.15. WVU posted a 48.975 on uneven bars, 48.95 on balance beam, a season-best 49.3 on floor exercise, and a season-best 49.125 on vault. Kayla Smith finished in second place overall with a 39.075.
The Big 12 Conference regular season schedule wraps up on Saturday, March 7, against No. 12 Utah and No. 24 BYU in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tennis
WVU Tennis lost to Oklahoma State and Kansas State this past week. No. 26 Oklahoma State defeated No. 25 Texas Tech 6-1 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Friday, February 27. Oklahoma State won the first two doubles matches and forfeited the third. They claimed the first five victories in singles play, forfeiting the final match.
WVU fell to Kansas State, 4-1, on Sunday, March 1. The Wildcats earned the doubles point with two victories to start doubles play. WVU’s Lucia Tognoni and Laura Villanueva Morillo won, 6-3, on court three. Kansas State secured four victories in singles play, while Julie Bousseau earned the only point for WVU.
WVU’s next match is on Friday, March 6, at 2 p.m. EST. They host TCU at the Summit Tennis Academy.
