How TCU's Rifle Team Stays on Target

One of the most successful TCU athletic programs of the past 20 years, the women-only rifle team is consistently capturing titles and shattering records. So, what makes them so damn good?

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Following two days of intense competition in the spring of 2019, TCU Rifle found itself tied with West Virginia University for the national title. Acutely aware of the enormity of the situation, athletes from both schools stepped up to the firing line at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown — a location that gave the Mountaineers homefield advantage — knowing a single missed shot could mean a lost championship crown. 

This was the defining moment. With rifles pressed against the shooters’ cheeks, their eyes set down their front and rear sights, and their fingers ready to pull the triggers of the metallic rifles they’d fired countless times before, they released shot after nerve-wracking shot.

West Virginia’s historical pedigree is solid — something akin to the Yankees of baseball. The school’s rifle team has amassed a still-unbeaten record of 19 NCAA national team championships (including five of the previous six, which included two runner-up finishes by TCU in 2017 and 2016), 25 individual NCAA championships, and has produced 13 Olympians. TCU teams were no slouches, but few would challenge West Virginia as the gold standard.

The women-only TCU squad — West Virginia is a coed program — was gunning for their first title since 2012. After the shooting finally ceased, the Horned Frogs would take home four of the five national trophies awarded on the final day of the competition. In addition to the team winning the national championship, Kristen Hemphill won the individual title in air rifle (edging out teammate Angeline Henry), and Elizabeth Marsh took home the individual smallbore title. 

The final margin of victory for the team title was seven points — 4,699 to 4,692. With 10 possible points awarded per shot (600 shots total when accounting for each shooter), that’s one bungled shot away from not hoisting the championship trophy. 

With the following season canceled due to COVID-19, TCU Rifle began its title defense in the 2020-21 season at a record-setting pace — heading into the NCAA championships undefeated. But, ultimately, the team would fall short in the overall competition against the University of Kentucky, despite coming out on top for the second year in a row in the air rifle competition. 

Becoming one of the best programs in the country hasn’t been an easy feat. The women on TCU’s rifle team commit hundreds of hours each season to perfecting their shot. In a sport where the width of a single strand of hair can make or break a score, precision and consistency are key. 

On the outside, rifle seems like a simple sport with one objective — shoot as close to the center of the target as you can. Only, imagine your target is a pin dot — nearly invisible to the naked eye — stationed at a distance roughly equal to the length of three cars parked end-to-end. 

Patterned after the Olympics and employing the same caliber rifle, there are two events at each competition — air rifle and smallbore. In air rifle, athletes are trying to hit as close to a bull’s-eye — the aforementioned pin dot — as possible. Using an air rifle, each athlete is given 75 minutes to complete 60 shots from 10 meters away from a standing position in an attempt to achieve a perfect score of 600. 

Smallbore is a bit more complicated. During this event, each athlete is allotted 95 minutes to complete 60 shots from 50 feet away using a .22-caliber smallbore rifle. Smallbore is completed from three positions — standing, kneeling, and prone. Unlike air rifle, the scores of five shooters count toward the team total. The top four scores are kept, while the lowest of the five is dropped. With a perfect individual score being 1,200, a perfect team score is 4,800. 

Achieving anywhere near a perfect score is an impressive feat, and the Horned Frogs have done it time and again. This season, Hemphill set a personal best in both events, scoring 591 in smallbore and 598 in air rifle in the tournaments against The Citadel and Air Force. Stephanie Grundsoee posted a perfect score in air rifle in the tournament against The University of Texas at El Paso, becoming only the third TCU shooter — after Mindy Miles and Olympic competitor Sarah Scherer — and 11th athlete across NCAA history to do so.

While the athleticism required is unquestionable, rifle is arguably as much mental as it is physical.

“The sport encompasses a lot of things,” Hemphill says. “Of course, it’s about how much practice you put into it, but at some point, you hit a wall that you can’t move past unless you’re doing other things outside of the range. That’s what really pushes people to the next level.” 

Journaling, listening to uplifting podcasts, and jotting down her goals and expectations before each match have helped Hemphill stay centered on her shooting and achieve consistent success. It’s easy to dwell on one bad shot or become distracted by the commotion across the stadium, but Hemphill’s streak of solid performances speaks to her ability to stay focused. After becoming the 2019 NCAA Air Rifle Champion her freshman year, Hemphill never fired a score below 594 in air rifle and owned the top average on the team during her sophomore year. 

Hemphill was born and raised in the tiny town of Lohn, Texas, (estimated population: 149) before enrolling at TCU to join the rifle team and study nursing. She started shooting when she was merely 8-years-old when her dad enrolled her in their local 4-H club. Hemphill humbly admitted that she wasn’t much of a fan at first, but she stuck it out to follow in her older sister’s footsteps.

Like most children, before graduating to a .22 caliber rifle, Hemphill first started pulling the trigger of a BB gun. And it wasn’t until she won the Texas State BB Gun Championship that she realized she had a knack for the sport and started to enjoy it. And when Hemphill learned of collegiate rifle, becoming a collegiate shooter became her main objective. Following this decision, Hemphill’s high school years were spent traversing the globe for competitions; she attended the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, and the World Shooting Championships in Changwon, South Korea. 

Coming off of this season, Hemphill ranked in the top 10 nationally in both air rifle and smallbore — ranking seventh in smallbore while finishing in ninth for air rifle. During her collegiate career, Hemphill has achieved All-American nine times. 

Despite being recruited by a number of the country’s best rifle programs, Hemphill was drawn to TCU for its friendly atmosphere, excellent nursing program, and highly regarded rifle team.

“TCU had everything I was looking for,” Hemphill says. “It fit all of the pieces of my puzzle.”

TCU Rifle is a relatively selective team, having only nine shooters this past season. With members hailing from hometowns as close Comfort to exotic locales as far away as Denmark, TCU’s rifle program has attracted women from incredibly diverse backgrounds.

After graduating from Norges Toppidrettsgymnas in Kongsvinger, Norway, Stephanie Grundsoee, a junior political science major, moved across the Atlantic to become a Horned Frog, bringing along a history of success that includes a silver medal at the 2018 World Championships in the Women’s Smallbore Team 3-position and a gold medal in the Women’s Air Rifle at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

Walking around campus, Grundsoee could pass for a typical TCU student. At first glance, no one would suspect she is a member of the Danish National Rifle Team or is ranked 69th in the International Shooting Sport Federation. Grundsoee was a standout shooter this season, leading the team in the first two matches against Ohio State and Akron by claiming the top score in both air rifle and smallbore. 

Starting at a young age, the women on TCU’s rifle team have learned how to make sacrifices to devote the time necessary to succeed in their sport. It’s not unusual to see a rifle team member skipping out on football games or hitting up the rifle range on school holidays. Despite all of the hours spent at the rifle range or at tournaments, the women somehow find time to stay on top of their academics.

“When I’m not shooting, I’m studying,” Hemphill says. 

Hemphill and Grundsoee were two of seven students awarded academic honors on TCU Rifle, with six of those students being named first-team performers. To qualify for the Academic Big 12 At-Large first team, students must successfully maintain a minimum 3.2 GPA, while students on the second team must hold between a 3.0 and 3.19 GPA. Being both a collegiate athlete and a scholar can be a tricky balancing act, but the self-discipline it takes to excel at shooting easily translates to their studies.

“They’re a strong team academically,” TCU Rifle coach Karen Monez says. “I think their success as students helps them achieve success as athletes.”

The women on the team collaborate closely with both their academic and athletic advisors to develop a schedule that accommodates their curriculums as well as their sport. TCU’s athletic department offers a center exclusively for the athletes that ensures team members are keeping up with NCAA standards to maintain eligibility, but that hasn’t been a problem for the women on TCU’s Rifle program who have routinely excelled on the range as well as in the classroom. 

“When we set our goals, we try not to goal set short,” Monez says. “I want the team members to really challenge themselves to always be at their best, whether that’s on the practice line or at the competition, whether they’re at the rifle range or in the classroom. Setting the bar high is really what drives us to be that national championship-caliber team.”

Supporting the team at every step of the way is Monez, who has been the squad’s head coach since 2004. When she first arrived, Monez carried with her a prolific career of competitive shooting and a collection of medals. Over the span of her career, Monez captured medals at five World Championships, including a gold in 1979, as well as eight titles at the U.S. International Shooting National Championships. In 2018, Shooting Sports Magazine recognized Monez as one of the 50 Greatest Shooters of the 20th century.

Over 17 seasons, Monez has been at the forefront of TCU Rifle’s rise to national prominence. Since taking the reins, TCU Rifle has secured a trio of national championships in 2010, 2012, and 2019 and has seen multiple players go to the Olympic Games or qualifiers. Her coaching has likewise garnered recognition, having received the 2011 Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association Coach of the Year and the 2007 National Rifle Association Distinguished College Coach of the Year awards. 

Monez drills her team on the importance of muscle memory and unfettered determination, lessons she learned from serving in the U.S. military for 25 years, during which she spent three years as a member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit International Rifle Section and 22 seasons with the U.S. Army Reserve Shooting Team. 

“As the coach, I want to make sure they have good equipment and training and give them all of the tools they need to succeed, but how they perform is really what’s inside them — their drive and dedication,” Munoz says. “As a coach, it’s my responsibility to create that environment where they can perform at their best.”

No athlete is immune from having a bad day, but it’s the athlete’s ability to bounce back and their adaptability that makes an elite shooter. Setting aside their impressive records, Monez says Hemphill and Grundsoee are two of the team’s top performers because they show an unparalleled professionalism in the way they’re able to rebound from setbacks.

“They’re part of that core group that sets a positive tone and is the driving force for the success of the team,” Monez says.

There are instances where members of TCU’s team may find themselves firing head-to-head at a tournament — gunning for an individual award — but there’s nothing but comradery between teammates. In fact, when one woman is at the firing line, TCU Rifle is often the rowdiest bunch in the crowd.

“We focus a lot on individual scores, but the team can only be as good as the individuals who are a part of it,” Monez says.

Unlike other sports that largely depend on the presence of all players at each practice, such as basketball, baseball, or soccer, shooters do not need to be on the practice line at the same time because team members compete independently. While COVID-19 forced other NCAA sports to reconfigure how they practiced and competed, rifle proved resilient, with the only significant change being the consolidation of the overall season schedule.

Training for a regular collegiate season picks up with the start of school in August and continues throughout the fall semester. After a brief break in December in accordance with the academic calendar, the team is back to the rifle range at the start of the spring semester in January to finish out the season in mid-February before gearing up for the NCAA Championships that will take place sometime in mid-March. For months, the team’s schedules are consumed by classes, practices, and competitions, leaving little room for much else.  

Starting in September, the team will typically attend 13 competitions throughout the season. This year, pandemic protocols pushed the first competition back until January, making for a particularly condensed season. From Jan. 8 until the NCAA Championships in mid-March, the team traveled every weekend to new locations, such as Virginia, Colorado, and Alaska, and were sometimes forced to fly to two places over three days. 

“With a shorter season, the back-to-back competitions could be challenging,” Hemphill says. “But for what we were given, we handled it well and had a great average going into the championships. I’ve always been proud of this team, and it seems as if the team gets better every single year. Going into the next season, who knows what we can accomplish.” 

Hemphill is looking ahead to her fourth and final year on TCU Rifle. Her plan after graduation is to become a full-time nurse, but it would be impossible to leave rifle behind at this point in her career. Currently, after placing sixth overall at the U.S. Olympic Air Rifle Trials in 2020, her sights are set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“I’m very thankful for this team and the coaches, and it will be bittersweet when I’m gone,” she says. “I wish I could do all four years over again.”

Having only lost one senior, next year’s team, aside from a few fresh faces, will look similar to this past season’s and is primed for success. TCU Rifle didn’t quite keep a championship streak as it had hoped, but the women are eager to return to the range to reclaim what was lost. 

The team practices in a plain, single-story building located across the street from the newly constructed The Harrison in the ROTC facility by the Tom Brown/Pete Wright residential community on TCU’s campus. TCU’s rifle range, which first opened in 1914, features 12 top-of-the-line firing targets that use sound waves to relay each shooter’s score immediately at the athlete’s stand alongside an electronic projection of the target. Equipped with everything one would need to hold a competition, it was only in due time that the NCAA took notice of the Horned Frogs’ humble home.

In 2009, the rifle range played host to the NCAA Championship for smallbore. As the tournament arrived, TCU Rifle was under immense pressure. The team was not only playing amiable host but also competing as the sole all-female squad against a coed roster. Since garnering team-status by the NCAA for the 1991-1992 season, TCU Rifle had only received its first NCAA National Championship berth two years before in 2007. These were major milestones, of course, but the excitement was incomparable to all that ensued when the team secured its first team national championship title in 2010, becoming the first fully female team to accomplish the feat. 

Across the 29 universities that compete in the NCAA for rifle, TCU’s team is one of only nine fully female squads shooting shoulder-to-shoulder with males in the coed division. When talking about a school’s athletic programs, standard male-dominated spectator sports, such as football, basketball, and even baseball, tend to receive the most attention. This, despite an array of success from women’s teams. 

Attendance at rifle tournaments isn’t exactly on par with other athletic programs, but anyone who has shown up to support TCU Rifle can’t deny that every event is exhilarating until the very end. For hours, everyone in the stands watches their respective shooters in anxious anticipation as tiny lead bullets are released from the barrels of their guns to race toward the center of a target upward of 33 feet away. 

“At any given point during a match, anybody could win,” says Hemphill. “In our sport, everyone is good. Because everything is constantly changing, you’re always working on yourself and making sure that you’re prepared for every match.”

There are few other sports that require the combined physical and mental aptitudes that it takes to succeed in rifle. Rounding the corner on an impressive season of 11 straight wins on top of a series of shattered records, TCU’s team has demonstrated that they are not slowing down any time soon.

“We have a passion for what we do,” Monez says. “Our team shows an unbelievable dedication to the sport. They work hard and show a great work ethic.”

---FOO BAR