Bryant Wallizer, a stand-out West Virginia University rifle team member is holding onto fourth place.	Chris Abalo, USAMU, stands in fifth position in men’s air rifle with an aggregate score of 1285.3.	High junior Connor Davis, the national Marine Corps Junior ROTC national champion, rounds out the top six rifle positions with an aggregate of 1283.6.

USA Shooting rifle coach, Dave Johnson said he is pleased with the intensity of the men’s air rifle group. He said the leaders have been working hard to maintain their focus and will challenge each other down the stretch. Scores are markedly higher approaching the 2012 Games compared to 2008, which bodes well for the U.S. team, Johnson said.

The race among competitors in Women’s Air Rifle is much tighter as junior Sarah Scherer, 20, of Woburn, Massachusetts, and veteran Olympian Emily Caruso, 34, of Fairfield, Connecticut, are in a near tie for first with Scherer prevailing on center shots. Both women compiled 898 aggregates out of 900 points possible at Anniston, with a mere nine center shots separating them (Scherer 68, Caruso 59).

Junior Sarah Scherer, an NCAA national smallbore champion at Texas Christian University, leads the women’s air rifle field in the Olympic Trials.	Olympian Emily Caruso is a close second to Scherer, separated only by nine center shots going to Camp Perry.	Jamie Gray, a 2008 Olympian, holds onto third place, just 1.8 points behind the leaders at 896.2.

Jamie Gray (formerly Beyerle), 27, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and 2008 Olympian, holds onto third place, just 1.8 points behind the leaders at 896.2. Meghann Morrill, 25, of Charlottesville, Virginia, trails just seven-tenths behind Gray at 895.5. Two juniors, Emily Holsopple, 19, of Wilcox, Pennsylvania, are currently in fifth and sixth positions, respectively. Holsopple stands at 894.6 and Abigail Stanec, 20, of Wadsworth, Ohio, is about 10 points behind the leader with 888.3.

Meghann Morrill, a 2011 National Championships gold medalist, trails Gray and currently holds fourth place.	Junior Emily Holsopple, a member of the national champion University of Kentucky rifle team, follows Morrill in fifth place.	Abigail Stanec, a sophomore member of the University of Mississippi rifle team is about 10 points behind Scherer with 888.3 points.

Coach Johnson said he is very excited about the growth of the women’s rifle field and pleased to have so many talented shooters challenging for roster spots in Part 2 of the trial.

“It’s a tight race among the women and it will make for a very competitive event at Camp Perry,” he said.

U.S. Army SFC Daryl Szarenski, 43, of Seale, Alabama, broke the USA Shooting national record in Men’s Air Pistol with 590 out of 600 on the first day of competition. The former record of 589 was held by Reuben Hafter and had been in place since 1990. SFC Szarenski also fired the highest final (101.8) which led him to set another national record with a qualification plus final score of 691.8.

SFC Daryl Szarenski set two new USA Shooting national records in Men’s Air Pistol in Anniston. He leads a talented group of shooters and leads the pack by more than 18 points.

SFC Szarenski leads all shooters by more than 18 points going into Part 2 competition after the Anniston trial with an aggregate score of 1275.8. Jason Turner, 36, of Rochester, New York, holds second place with 1257.5, including his best final of 100.5. SFC Szarenski and Turner are both U.S. Olympic team veterans.

High junior Will Brown, 20, of Twin Falls, Idaho, trails Turner by six-tenths of a point at 1256.9.

In Women’s Air Pistol, PO1 Sandra Uptagrafft, USNR, 40, of Phenix City, Alabama, leads all competitors by a wide margin with a Part 1 aggregate score of 859.5. Junior Darian Shenk, 17, of Annville, Pennsylvania, follows in second place with 839.6 and fellow junior Kylie Gagnon, 20, of Bozeman, Montana is third at 836.2.

Petty Officer First Class, Sandra Uptagrafft, U.S. Navy Reserve, leads all competitors by a wide margin in Women’s Air Pistol with an aggregate score of 859.5

Team USA pistol coach Sergey Luzov said SFC Szarenski has been performing at a very high level leading up to the trials.

“You saw what he did here yesterday (Dec. 3rd at Anniston). That was world-class – it was actually an Olympic gold level. There’s no reason to expect him to fall from the first position – I don’t see that happening,” Luzov said.

“I was very proud of how he performed on the second day as well. He backed up what he did yesterday with a very strong performance. His score was very good, but if you look closely at his score – there were several 9.9’s that made it very close to what he shot on Day I.”

“I knew Daryl was stronger than the others, but not by that much. It thought it would be tighter. For the rest of the group, they are in the hunt, all the way back to sixth place, for the second slot,” Luzov said.

“We have camps planned; we have World Cup competitions, we have a London test event on the Olympic range in April, we have European and U.S. camps and another tryout for those shooting Free Pistol in June at Nationals at Fort Benning. After that we have a challenge competition in Germany, a camp in Denmark, a pre-Olympic camp and then the Olympics,” Luzov said.

For complete results of the Olympic Team Trials, Part 1, log onto http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=7831. To view and download photographs from the event, log onto http://cmp1.zenfolio.com.