LEXINGTON, Va. - The VMI women's rifle team won its first ever competition as a separate NCAA intercollegiate sport by outpointing University of Sciences in Philadelphia (USP), 3764-3689, last Saturday at Kilbourne Hall on the post of Virginia Military Institute.

The Keydet women shot 1872 in smallbore, well outdistancing USP's 1739 point total. In air rifle, USP held a 1950 to 1892 edge, but VMI prevailed on the total point scores.

VMI women had competed in rifle since 1998 as a coed team, but became a separate sponsored sport at the start of the 2009-2010 academic year.

The Keydets were led by the duo of senior Jennifer Cook (Fairfax, VA) and Jennifer McCracken (Greenville, Va.) who combined for over half of the team's total scoring. Cook accumulated 1019 points (504 smallbore, 515 air rifle), just edging McCracken's combined marks of 490 in smallbore and 525 in air rifle. 

Rounding out the VMI scoring team was Kayla Johnson (Amherst, Va., 466-436-902) and Sarah Whitten (Naples, Fla., 412-418-830).

USP was paced by Elisha Shumand who had a 488 in smallbore and 523 in air rifle.

The VMI women fared better than the Keydet men's team as USP "mixed" squad took top honors in the competition with a score of 4403 to 4177 over the VMI men.

The rifle teams continue their schedule this Saturday at Kilbourne Hall as VMI hosts Penn State in head-to-head competition at 8 am.