The NCAA rifle championships are contested at an annual competition sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the team and individual champions of co-educational collegiate rifle among its member programs in the United States. Unlike many NCAA sports, only one National Collegiate championship is held each season with teams from Division I, Division II, and Division III competing together. It has been held in mid-March every year since 1980, except 2020.
The two-day event includes individual and team titles with team scoring based on the aggregate performances of individual shooters across a set of smallbore and air rifle competitions.
West Virginia have been the most successful program at the team and individual levels; the Mountaineers have won 20 team and 28 individual titles.
The current team national champions are West Virginia, who won their twentieth team national championship at the 2025 event, held at the Memorial Coliseum at University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY from March 14-15. Cecilia Ossi of Alaska won the individual championship for smallbore, while Audrey Gognait of Ole Miss won the individual championship for air rifle.
Background
Co-ed status
Under NCAA rules, sports teams that include both men and women are designated as men's teams for purposes of sports sponsorship and scholarship limitations. Nonetheless, rifle has been a coed sport since 1980, a year before the NCAA began holding championships in women's sports. Schools sponsoring rifle may field anywhere from one to three teams. If a school chooses to sponsor more than one team, it may have any combination of men's, women's, and coed teams. Two schools field men's and women's teams, and three field women's and coed teams.
Programs
Conferences
- Great America Rifle Conference
- Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference
- Ohio Valley Conference, the only Division I all-sports conference that sponsored rifle before the SoCon added it in 2016–17.
- Patriot Rifle Conference
- Southern Conference; resumed the sport in 2016–17 after a 30-year hiatus.
Results
- Prior to NCAA sponsorship in 1980, a collegiate rifle championship was held yearly by the National Rifle Association.
- From 1980 to 2004, the championship consisted of 120 shots by each competitor in smallbore, and 40 shots per competitor in air rifle. Since 2005, the championship has consisted of 60 shots for both smallbore and air rifle, equaling a total of 120 shots per team member.
Champions
Team titles
Appearances by Team
Key
- CH National Champion
- RU National Runner-up
- Numbers indicate the placement of the team in that tournament beyond second
Individual titles
Schools in italics no longer compete in NCAA rifle.
See also
- Pre-NCAA Intercollegiate Rifle Champions (1905-1979)
- Pre-NCAA Women's Intercollegiate Rifle Champions
Footnotes
External links
- NCAA Sports: Men's & Women's Rifle
