The 2026 NCAA Rifle Championships was a tournament held to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rifle shooting champions for the 2025âÂÂ26 season. The 46th annual edition of the championship was held on March 13 and 14, 2026, at the Covelli Center on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, United States.
West Virginia repeated as national champions, winning its 21st tournament with a 4748-point aggregate score. TCU finished second with 4741 points, marking the university's seventh runner-up finish in the NCAA championships. Ole Miss finished third with 4738 points, tying its best-ever finish in a national championship.
Griffin Lake of West Virginia was named the Most Outstanding Performer after finishing first in individual aggregate scoring, with 1,194 points. He finished second in the aggregate in both the smallbore and air rifle competitions, with 595 and 599 points, respectively. Braden Peiser of Kentucky won the individual smallbore competition with an NCAA record-tying aggregate of 596 points, while Audrey Gogniat won the individual air rifle competition with a perfect aggregate score of 600 points. Gogniat's win marked her second consecutive individual air rifle championship.
Teams were selected by averaging their three highest regular-season match aggregate scores and adding that value to their aggregate score at their designated NCAA qualifier event. The top eight teams would be selected to compete in the national championship. The NCAA hosted its selection show for rifle on February 23.
Five shooters each from the eight selected schools competed in the individual smallbore and air rifle events. Eight individuals from non-qualifying schools also qualified for the national championships based on their marks in their NCAA qualifier event. In the smallbore event, Addison Antweiler of Army, Katrina Demerle of Memphis, and Carlotta Salafia and Lea Soulé of Murray State qualified. In air rifle, Lily Wytko and Lily Martin of Air Force, Caroline Martin of Murray State, and Kameron Wells of UTEP qualified.
Day one of the event, held on March 13 at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, saw the smallbore competition take place. Braden Peiser of Kentucky had the top aggregate score in the qualifying round, a mark of 596, heading into the individual smallbore final. Peiser's 596 mark tied the NCAA Championships record for smallbore. Qualifying alongside Peiser for the final individual competition was Kentucky teammate Elizabeth Probst, Ole Miss shooters Audrey Gogniat and Gracie Dinh, West Virginia shooters Griffin Lake and Océanne Muller, TCU shooter Katie Zaun, and Nebraska shooter Emma Rhode.
Peiser led for nearly all of the final. Dinh and Rhode were first eliminated, with scores of 405.9 and 406.3, respectively. Muller was next eliminated with a score of 419.9, good for a sixth-place finish. Zaun finished fifth, eliminated next with a score of 430.3, before Probst was eliminated with a score of 441.8 for a fourth-place finish. This left Peiser, Gogniat, and Lake as the podium field. Lake was next to be eliminated, and finished third with a score of 452.6, leaving Peiser and Gogniat as the final two remaining. After the shootout final, Peiser emerged as the winner, firing a mark of 466.0 in the final compared to Gogniat's 464.4.
As a team, Ole Miss emerged as the day one winner, with an aggregate score of 2356. TCU and Nebraska tied for second behind the Rebels, with 2354 points. TCU, however, had more centers than Nebraska, giving the Horned Frogs the second spot and the Cornhuskers third.
Day two of the event, held on March 14 at the Covelli Center, saw the air rifle competition take place. At the end of the qualifying round, Ole Miss' Audrey Gogniat held the leading aggregate score, with a perfect 600 mark. The perfect mark was the fourth such score in her career, becoming the third person in NCAA history to record four perfect scores in air rifle competition. Also qualifying for the final were West Virginia shooters Griffin Lake, Océanne Muller, and Jennifer Kocher, TCU's Mikole Hogan and Katie Zaun, Nebraska's Katlyn Sullivan, and Georgia Southern's Tori Watts.
In the air rifle final, first eliminated was Watts of Georgia Southern with a score of 122.7, good for eighth place. Kocher of West Virginia finished seventh with a score of 144.1. The pair of TCU shooters finished sixth and fifth- Zaun recorded a score of 166.2, while Hogan recorded a 187.3 mark. Muller of West Virginia finished fourth with 208.2, leaving fellow West Virginian Lake, Gogniat of Ole Miss, and Sullivan of Nebraska as the podium field.
In the final three, Sullivan held the lead, while Lake held the second place spot. On the 22nd shot, however, Gogniat took over the second spot, which she held to advance to the shootout with Sullivan. Lake finished in third, with a score of 229.2. In the shootout, Sullivan led by as many as two points, but Gogniat came back to claim her second straight air rifle crown. Sullivan finished second with 249.9 points, while Gogniat won with 251.0.
As a team, West Virginia finished first in aggregate scoring in air rifle. The Mountaineers' mark of 2395 tied the NCAA record for air rifle score. TCU finished second with 2387, while Kentucky finished third with 2383.
Following the air rifle results, West Virginia emerged as the tournament's winner, reprising their finish in the 2025 edition with an aggregate score of 4748. The win marked an NCAA-record 21 tournament wins for the Mountaineers, and their eighth under head coach John Hammond. TCU finished second with a 4741 score, marking the seventh runner-up finish in the Horned Frogs' history. Ole Miss rounded out the podium in third place, with a score of 4738. The placement tied the Rebels' best-ever finish, having previously placed third in 2021.
Kentucky and Nebraska finished tied with a score of 4736, however the Wildcats won fourth place due to their number of center shots being higher, leaving the Cornhuskers in fifth. Navy finished sixth with a score of 4722, Georgia Southern in seventh with 4717, and Alaska finished eighth with 4714.
In the individual competition, Griffin Lake of West Virginia was named the Most Outstanding Performer of the championship, with an aggregate score of 1194 (595 in smallbore and 599 in air rifle).