Five Shooters Named to the MAC All-Academic Rifle Team

Philadelphia, Pa. (April 9, 2010) - Four members of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia's mixed rifle team along with one member of the USP women's rifle team have been named to the 2009-2010 Mid Atlantic Rifle Conference (MAC) All-Academic Team.

USP mixed team members that earned MAC honors this season were seniors Glen Hirsh (Cherokee High School/Marlton, N.J.), Courtney Cavalieri (Highland High School/ Highland, N.Y.) and freshman Ed Ryznar (Maplewood HS/Titusville, Pa.) and Brad Driscoll (Alvirne HS/Hudson, N.H.). Junior  Nicole Churchill (Pocono Mountain West HS/ Albrightsville, Pa.) was the lone member of the USP women's team that was recognized by the MAC. Cavalieri and Hirsh are repeat selections from last year's inaugural conference All-Academic Team.

The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia had the second highest number of athletes named to the 20-person team with five trailing only the University of Akron who had eight student-athletes named. Massachusetts Institute of Technology had four shooters named while Penn State University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice had one apiece.

Shooters are nominated for the MAC All-Academic Team by their respective coaches. A mathematical formula combining a shooter's highest average in either gun along with a weighted grade score based on their fall semester grade point average or cumulative g.p.a. whichever is higher is used to determine the All-Academic Team, with the 20 highest scores earning All-Academic Team honors.

Cavalieri is a fifth-year pharmacy major, pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Courtney currently has a 3.270 overall grade point average. and recently completed her fourth and final season of competition for the Devils. Courtney finished the season with a smallbore average of 544.00 and an air rifle average of 553.56 while competing in 12 events for the Devils. Cavalieri's smallbore season and career high score of 557 came against Virginia Military Institute in October while her season high air rifle score of 561 was also in October against Navy. The Poughkeepsie, New York native was also named to the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference (MAC) All-Academic Team in 2009 and the Philadelphia Area All-Academic Women's At-Large Team the same year.

Hirsh, a senior and four year member of the mixed rifle team earns All-Academic honors for the second time, sporting a 3.39 g.p.a. as a microbiology major with a bioinformatics minor. Glen finished his fourth and final season as a member of the Devils mixed rifle team with a smallbore average of 530.09 and an air rifle average of 527.22. Hirsh recorded his season-high for air rifle at the NRA Sectionals in February, firing a score of 543. His season-high in smallbore came against Indiana University of Pennsylvania in November when he shot 545.

Ryznar, a first-year pharmacy major, recorded a grade point average of 3.900 in the fall semester. He was the Devils top shooter in smallbore throughout the year. Ed competed in eleven MAC matches this season and had a smallbore average of 568.55. As USP's second leading shooting in air rifle, Ryznar shot in nine matches producing an average of 574.56. During the season, Ed shot a career high smallbore score of 580 against Loyola College (Md.) on October 31, 2009 and a career high air rifle score of 582 against University of Akron on November 7, 2009.

Driscoll, also a first-year pharmacy major, recorded a grade point average of 3.86 in the fall semester. He was Sciences top air rifle marksman during the season, competing in nine MAC matches and producing a 574.78 average. Brad was the Devils second leading smallbore shooter during the season. Driscoll recorded his best air rifle score of the season last month at the NRA Sectional in Philadelphia, shooting 581 on January 30, 2010. One week earlier, Brad had his best smallbore score of the season, shooting 577 against Navy.

Churchill rounds out the five honorees for the Devils. A three-year member of the women's team, Nicole served as captain of the women's squad during the 2009-10 season. In her fourth year academically, Churchill has a 3.729 g.p.a. as a pharmacy major. The junior shooter led the women's team in both guns with a 521.67 air rifle average and a 474.09 smallbore average. Nicole shot a career high of 539 in air rifle earlier this season against Navy.

The MAC is the largest rifle conference in the nation and currently consists of 15 members in eight states from Virginia to Massachusetts and west to Ohio. The MAC strives, through the practice of riflery, to promote the highest ethical standards of athletic competition and individual conduct, foster the development of mutual understanding and cooperation among its member institutions, and work to develop complete mutual understanding of the sport among all member institutions

---