Churchill Named MAC Air Rifle Shooter of the Month

Philadelphia, Pa. (March 23, 2011) - University of the Sciences senior Nicole Churchill (Pocono Mountain West High School/Albrightsville, Pa.) has been named the Mid Atlantic Rifle Conference (MAC) Air Rifle Shooter of the month for the month of February 2010 as announced  by the conference. 

Churchill is the fifth shooter from USciences to earn MAC Shooter of the Month honors in either smallbore or air rifle since the award's inception in 2008 and the second USciences shooter to earn the award for Air Rifle.  Previous winners include Brad Driscoll (Smallbore, November 2010); Courtney Cavalieri (Smallbore, February 2009); Hannah Goess (Smallbore, November 2008) and Deborah Booth (Air Rifle, October 2008). The award was created in 2008 and honors two shooters (one smallbore, one air) each month. The award is not necessarily based on the highest scores fired that month but to award outstanding performances (personal bests, recording scores well above season averages, gritty performances despite extraneous duress, etc), leadership, work ethic, classroom work and community service. 

In the Devils two matches in February, the Albrightsville, Pennsylvania native posted air rifle scores of 537 in the NRA Sectional match and 538 at the Devils NCAA qualifier match at Army. The senior shooter led the women's team in both guns with a 522.00 air rifle average and a 460.67 smallbore average.  Her 538 score in the NCAA qualifier was a season high.

Nicole's academic success has been evidenced by her earning the Dean's List numerous times, being named to the CRCA Scholar Athlete two consecutive years, and is currently the President of the Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society.

Over the course of Nicole's five years she has held membership in Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Society; has been a coordinator of hypertension patient care for APhA; been a teaching assistant in USciences chemistry, molecular biology, and genetics; is a private tutor in organic chemistry; and is a research intern in clinical pediatric pharmacology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The two year team captain of the USciences Women's Rifle Team now ends her collegiate rifle career and has had a positive impact on the rifle program.

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.