Kentucky Rifle Falls to No. 3 Navy, 4738-4728, at Barker Hall

No. 7 Kentucky rifle came up 10 points short against No. 3 Navy on Saturday at Barker Hall, falling 4738-4728 in a Halloween dual match.

Smallbore decided it. Navy shot 2356 to Kentucky's 2343, a 13-point edge. The Wildcats won air rifle 2385 to 2382, but three points back wasn't enough to close the gap.

Braden Peiser was Kentucky's best again. The senior shot 592 in smallbore and 598 in air rifle for a 1190 aggregate, second overall and one point behind Navy's Tyler Wee (1191). Liz Peiser added a 1182 (584 SB, 598 AR), and Sam Adkins and Elisa Boozer each posted 1180. Freshmen Noah Abzug (1171) and Maggie Palfrey (1168, with a 592 in air rifle) rounded out the first relay.

In the second relay, Iva Rakonjac shot 577 and 591, Hannah Todd 571 and 589, and Jacob St. Hilaire 579 and 579.

For Navy, Hannah Talbott shot a perfect 600 in air rifle on her way to a 1188 aggregate, and Isabella Baldwin added a 1186.

"We didn't handle the small details well enough today to get a win against a really great team in Navy," UK head coach Harry Mullins said in the UK Athletics recap. "We will have a couple weeks here to regroup."

Our take: losing by 10 to a top-three team isn't a crisis, and Kentucky actually won air rifle. The difference was smallbore, where the Wildcats were 13 points back. Peiser keeps shooting like one of the best in the country. The rest of the lineup needs to tighten up smallbore before the bigger meets.

What's next: Kentucky has two weeks off before competing in Morgantown, W.Va., on Nov. 14-15 (smallbore Saturday, air rifle Sunday), then travels to Alaska and Air Force in Fairbanks on Nov. 21-22.

Sources: UK Athletics recap · NCAA rifle scorecard · UK rifle schedule