Husker Rifle Opens 2026-27 Season Hosting Akron

The Nebraska rifle team will open the 2026-27 season at home against Akron this Saturday, Sept. 26. The match will start at 8 a.m. (CT) and will be held at the Nebraska Rifle Range in Lincoln, Neb. Results can be found here and admission is free for fans.

The Big Red rifle team is ranked No. 4 in the preseason College Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) poll. Nebraska finished last season No. 2 in the CRCA poll and placed fifth at the NCAA Championships. 

The match on Saturday against Akron is the first of fifteen regular season matches for the Cornhuskers. Eight matches will be held in the fall part of the season and seven matches will open up the spring season, heading into the PRC Championships, NCAA Qualifiers and NCAA Championships. NU will also compete in the West Virginia Fall Classic on November 14-15. 

Richard Clark begins his third season as Nebraska’s head coach after going 18-1 last season.

“We are excited to welcome Akron to Lincoln for our first home stand of the season! Our athletes have done a tremendous job getting to work this fall focused on the work that goes into each shot and we are ready to face the challenge of match day” Clark said. “I think the key to success for us this weekend will be remaining confident in our ability to execute the process we have rehearsed repeatedly the past few weeks. Regardless of how the number looks this weekend we are excited to see where we are at and set the rest of the season in motion.”

NU has faced Akron 21 times in program history, winning 17 of the matches. The Huskers did not face Akon last season, but they beat the Zips, 4710-4707, in 2024. 

Nebraska is returning seven shooters from last season, including Charlie Mick, the only senior on this year’s roster. Mick competed in eight matches last season, putting up averages of 576.13 in the smallbore and 591.83 in the air rifle. Mick also shot new personal bests of 590 in the smallbore, 597 in the air rifle, and 1,187 in the aggregate, all of which were set at UTEP on Nov. 15. 

Junior Maddy Moyer also returns to the range. In the 2025-26 season, Moyer posted averages of 586.79 and 593.40 in the smallbore and air rifle respectively, even shooting a 598 in the air rifle on February 8. Moyer’s season-high air rifle score of 598 tied her with two other members of her class (Alivia Perkins & Grace Corbett) as program record holders of the highest single-match air rifle score by a sophomore. 

Perkins, the Junior from Fort Wayne, Ind., earned a CRCA Second-Team All-America honor in the smallbore. She garnered a first-place finish in the smallbore on Nov. 22 against Ole Miss and Air Force with her career-best mark of 593. 

Corbett, the last remaining name in the trio, had a fantastic 2025-26 season. During her campaign, Corbett put up personal bests of 585 in the smallbore, 598 in the air rifle and 1,179 in the aggregate. 

Sophomore Hannah Gallagher is coming off a strong freshman campagin, as last season she put up averages of 578.4 in the smallbore, 588.2 in the air rifle and 1,166.6 in the aggregate. Gallagher competed in ten matches for the Huskers last season, highlighted by a third-place finish in the air rifle in Nebraska’s victory over UAB on Oct. 11.  

In a record-smashing freshman year, Katlyn Sullivan earned herself multiple All-America awards, as she was a First-Team All-American in the Air Rifle and Second-Team All-American in the smallbore and aggregate. Sullivan now holds the freshman record for single-match air rifle score with her score of 599, which she shot five times, in addition to the highest freshman season average in the air rifle with her average of 597.29. 

Carley Seabrooke also put together a strong freshman campaign in her first year with the Huskers, being named a First-Team All American in the smallbore and a Third-Team All American in the aggregate. Her smallbore average of 589.53, along with her personal best of 593, cemented her in the record books as the program leader for the freshman class for both areas. 

Nebraska also has two incoming freshmen in Kenly Downey and Makenzie Larson. Downey comes from Clinton, Illinois. In 2023, she grabbed second place in the air rifle and third place in the smallbore at the ISRA Championships. In 2024, Downey competed in the CMP State Championships and took first place in the air rifle. 

Makenzie Larson is from Wellington, Colorado and in 2025, she earned a silver in the women’s 10m air rifle at both the USA Shooting Junior Olympics and the Junior CAT Games. Larson also grabbed gold medals in the air rifle at the 2025 H&N Cup and the Meyton Cup. She was on the ELEY High School All-American Air Rifle Team in 2023 and 2024, and won gold at the 2022 National Junior Olympic Championships in the smallbore. 

“We are excited to have everyone back on campus and have our first match quickly approaching! I am looking forward to seeing what this group can do, having a strong returning group and adding some very talented freshmen to the roster this season should put us right back in the mix to be amongst the best in the nation each week” Clark said. “Coming off a historic year filled with many program records and our first conference championship in 20 years the goal still remains the same, be true to who we are on the line and be true to our process earning every point this season.”

Following Saturday’s match, the Nebraska rifle team goes on the road to face Ohio State next Saturday, Oct. 3.