West Virginia Rifle Secures Spot In NCAA Rifle Championships

The West Virginia Mountaineers rifle team announced that it has qualified for the 2026 NCAA Rifle Championships. The Championships will take place in Columbus, Ohio, on March 13th and 14th.

West Virginia Qualifies for 2026 NCAA Rifle National Championships

📰 https://t.co/5NcBv89hHS #HailWV pic.twitter.com/IxHo24Y96u
— WVU Rifle (@WVURifle) February 23, 2026

The team boasts an 18-1 overall regular season record; the lone blemish on their record came in a nail-biter against the then-number-four-ranked TCU Horned Frogs by a score of 4732-4707, all the way back on November 8th in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Mountaineers will have their opportunity to avenge their only loss to TCU in the NCAA Championships, as the Horned Frogs also qualified for a spot in the National Championships.

Joining the number four-ranked Mountaineers and number three-ranked Horned Frogs in Columbus will be number one-ranked Kentucky, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 6 Alaska Fairbanks, No. 7 Navy, and No. 8 Georgia Southern.

The Mountaineers will enter the event for the 18th consecutive season as by far the most decorated rifle program in NCAA history. West Virginia holds the NCAA record with 20 championships. The next closest program in terms of championships is Alaska Fairbanks, with 11 total. The program aims to repeat as NCAA Champions for the first time since doing so in the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Although the Mountaineers already have their spot in the NCAA Championships secured, they still have the Great American Rifle Conference Championships in West Point, New York, on February 28th through March 1st. West Virginia most recently defeated the number one naked team in the nation, the Kentucky Wildcats, to secure its third consecutive GARC regular season title.

Jon Hammond is a Walking WVU Legend

WVU rifle head coach Jon Hammond is the reason for the unbelievable level of sustained success the Mountaineers have had under his watch. Hammond joined the West Virginia rifle staff in 2006, starting off as a volunteer assistant and was later named head coach that same year. It has been nothing but winning and collecting hardware for the most storied rifle program in the nation. Under Hammond, the Mountaineers have collected seven national championships. Hammond has a win percentage of over 90% and is the only coach in the history of the program with over 200 wins, and that number will continue to climb.

Hammond was a member of the Mountaineers rifle team from 2002-2003 and competed in the Olympics twice, in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Hammond has used his experience to help continue the rise of the most successful program on WVU's campus. Hammond and the team absolutely have the skills to take home yet another National Championship to Morgantown in the coming months.