Saturday afternoon brought a historic 20th title to the West Virginia University rifle program, coming back from third place after day one on Friday to capture the title, as head coach Jon Hammond won his seventh title in Morgantown. Read WVU rifle head coach Jon Hammond speaks on National Championship.
Hammond talked about what it meant to win the title, touching on the moment the Mountaineers became champions.
“I mean, a lot of emotions, for me personally, eight years has been a long time. And then and it’s you kind of realize over that time how hard it is to win a national championship, how special it is to do something like that. Ym just going through the years, it seems like it was getting harder and harder, and it’s harder. You go through a whole year, some some years we’ve had some amazing years and still come up short. Other years we’ve had not so good kind of seasons, but this was another season that was a really, really great season and then an incredibly exciting championship.”
Natalie Perrin
For Hammond, senior Natalie Perrin being able to close out her collegiate career by giving WVU the 4738th and decisive point for a national championship was a great moment.
“And so, it was such a close championship. I mean it really came down to the last, ten shots. I haven’t felt that in, in a long time because we haven’t been that close or certainly hasn’t come down to the last couple shots as much as it did. So it’s a lot of emotions at the end. A lot of obviously, happiness, a lot of joy, a lot of pride in the team and, and what they’ve managed to accomplish. And I think for me also a lot of, a lot of emotions for Natalie and for her to be the one that, that finished the match, you know, fired the last shot to win. And, that being her last college match. You know I think the whole weekend was challenging and emotional for her. Kind of just that’s your college career ending and, and probably her rifle career, you know, coming to a close.”
Coming from Behind
Though the Mountaineers won the title, they had to do so coming from behind after a disappointing day one. But Hammond was able to guide the team into working through that and using it to triumph.
“Yeah, I think the feeling was we were probably, you know, a little disappointed from day one. But at the same time, I think probably there was also a feeling of like, wow, we’re we’re actually we’re still in it. So there was kind of some, some optimism as well. I think the message was very much, hey, we’re, we’re still in it, but maybe there’s, there’s not as much pressure. There’s, there’s two teams, there’s two teams ahead of us. And you know, that’s a hard position for them to be in.” Hammond said “We’ve, we’ve been in that position where you’re either leading after the first day or you’re, you’re tied for the lead. And obviously they came back and had a great day the second day and it was just enough.”
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An Eight Year Drought
Though this is Hammond’s seventh championship, it was his first in eight years. Hammond won national championships in 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, but had to wait until 2025 to win another. Hammond says it was a learning experience these past eight years and made the latest title even more enjoyable.
“You know, you’re, you’ve become older and wiser over the years and like I said, maybe, you know, maybe maybe a little bit more gratitude of, you know, it’s been a fight. I think, like you said, when you’re winning championships in a row like this, I don’t think there was ever complacency, but after 3-4-5 in a row, you kind of have expectations and, and things like that. And the sport is different from 10 years ago too. There’s a lot more parity, there’s a lot more teams that are competitive. And having had to wait so long and, and put so much work in and, and had many successful teams over the years and, just really pleased for this team that we were able to finish the season and have that experience going through the season, obviously being successful for the whole season.”
Experience and Depth
Hammond praised the experience and depth of the team, stating that Perrin and Gavin Barnick’s leadership combined with the strong depth of the team helped them win the national championship.
“It’s had a lot of the right ingredients. It’s been a really well balanced group. We’ve had some really good sort of leadership and experience with, with the two seniors, with Gavin and Natalie. We’ve had, you know, some, some solids, some solid depths. Maybe not the deepest team that we’ve had, but we had some pretty good depth this year. I think that showed with seven, I think 7 out of our nine team members were, you know, all Americans and really our 8th, you know, was, was only not an all American because she came in the spring and didn’t have enough matches. So the depth was there, but also kind of it was almost like a fresh new atmosphere.” Hammond said. “So last year we graduated 6 team members, like 6 out of 11. So more than half of our team left. And then this year 4 new team members come in. So it was a very, it was kind of like almost a chance to, you know, clean slate, you know, very, very new team atmosphere, a new group of kids.”
WVU rifle head coach Jon Hammond speaks on National Championship
