Audrey Gogniat won the NCAA air rifle individual championship and helped the Ole Miss rifle team secure a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships on March 14 at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The achievement marks only the second time in program history that Ole Miss has reached the podium at the NCAA Tournament, matching its best-ever placement from the 2020-21 season. The Rebels finished with a total aggregate score of 4738, including a 2382 in air rifle. First-year head coach Will Shaner led Ole Miss to this result, capping his inaugural season by also guiding the team to its first smallbore event title on Friday.
Gogniat made history by shooting her fourth career perfect score of 600 in air rifle, tying Lea Horvath for most perfect scores by an Ole Miss athlete. She became only the second woman and third student-athlete ever to achieve four perfect scores at the NCAA level. Gogniat repeated as national champion after coming from behind against Nebraska’s Katlyn Sullivan and outlasting West Virginia’s Griffin Lake during a tense final round.
West Virginia claimed first place overall with a record-tying aggregate of 4748, while TCU finished second with a score of 4741. Both teams surpassed Ole Miss in air rifle performance, with West Virginia matching an all-time NCAA record by scoring 2395 in that discipline.
Jordan de Jesus, Regan Diamond, and Gracie Dinh each contributed scores of 594 to help Ole Miss reach its air rifle tally. The Rebels concluded their season with back-to-back years of ten wins or more and set a program record for aggregate average at 4731.1 points per match.
