Christopher Hicks ’24 competes in the smallbore competition at the SoCon Rifle Championships. He led VMI in smallbore and set a new school record in air rifle in November 2021.—Photo courtesy VMI Keydets.
The VMI rifle teams enjoyed another successful season at the range that featured broken school records and multiple personal best scores.
The VMI mixed rifle team finished fifth at the Southern Conference Championships with 4,537 points, and the VMI women placed sixth overall with 4,411 aggregate points.
Christopher Hicks ’24 earned Second Team All-Conference honors in the air rifle for his scores for the category throughout the regular season. In November, Hicks broke the VMI school record in the air rifle in a dual against Nebraska in which he shot a 587, breaking the former record of 582 held by Andrew Hickey ’17 and Hunter Jacob ’20 from the 2017-18 season. He also shot in the finals segment of the smallbore competition on the first day of the SoCon Rifle Championships in early March.
At the SoCon Championships, Hicks led the team in the smallbore category with a 566 and was followed by Jessica Hankin ’22 at 564. Simon Krauthamer ’22 finished third on the team with 559 points, and Stephen Garner ’23 logged a 533 for the event.
On the women’s side of the smallbore segment, Maxine Gray-Barth ’24 led the team with 544 points, and Katie Grochalski ’24 and Claire Lee ’22 tied for second on the team with a 533.
In the air rifle competition at the SoCon Championships, Samantha Reid ’22 finished second on the VMI mixed team with a 14th-place mark of 579 air rifle points, followed by Hankin’s 568 for 23rd place.
Claire Lee led the VMI women with a 21st-place finish with 570 air rifle points, followed by Gray-Barth’s score of 569 for 22nd place.
