Army West Point Athletics
Chris Abalo Named Top Shooter At NCAA Rifle Championships
March 11, 2007 | General
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Army junior Chris Abalo added another honor to his mounting list of awards with his selection as the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association’s “Shooter of the Match” at the NCAA Championships.
The award was presented to Abalo Saturday evening based on his performance in both smallbore and air rifle at the NCAA Championships, where he led the Black Knights to runner-up honors with a 4644 behind 2007 champion Alaska Fairbanks’ 4662 winning total.
The native of Glendora, Calif., finished third in the air rifle finals and fourth in smallbore to cop honors as the most valuable shooter. Competing on the final relay in the team scoring in smallbore, Abalo lifted the Black Knights into second place and one point behind defending champion and host UAF, 2308-2307, with a 584 for the top qualifying score heading into the 10 shot shoot-off.
Abalo fired a 92.1 in the finals to finish fourth with a 676.1. The next day, he headed into the air rifle finals in sixth place with a qualifying score of 588, then outpointed the field with the highest score of 103.2 to jump three spots to claim the bronze medal with a 691.2.
Jacksonville State’s Michael Dickinson won the air rifle title with a 692.2, while runner-up UAF’s Matthias Dierolf’s 691.4 was only two-tenths of a point ahead of Abalo.
The third-place effort in air rifle is the highest placing by Abalo at the NCAAs. He has finished among the Top 6 at the NCAAs five times. He copped fourth-place finishes in smallbore twice (2005 and 2007) along with a sixth in smallbore last year, while claiming fourth-place in air rifle in 2005 and third this year.
Abalo was among five Black Knights accorded All-American honors by the NRA. He was selected in both disciplines for the third straight year to set a school record as a six-time first-team All-American, bettering the former mark of five set by David Cannella between 1982-84.
