Area shooters are part of Zips' successful team

The deep and talented University of Akron rifle team has become one of the best in America this season, and two Youngstown-area shooters have been part of that undefeated squad's climb into national prominence.
Senior Laura Kuntz from Columbiana and South Range High and freshman Josh Fabijance from Niles High have helped Coach Newt Engle's Zips to a 4-0 record in small bore and air rifle competition combined entering Saturday's home match against Morehead State.
Kuntz is a four-year shooter and team co-captain and leader following in the footsteps of her sister, Emily Kuntz, who finished her fourth year with the Zips last season.
Fabijance is a promising first-year marksman and a product of the Vienna Cougars youth team.
Two teams
Akron enters a Gold team and a Blue team in competition, and they have shot so well that they have placed 1-2, respectively, in three of the Zips' four wins this season.
Those were in the Boilermaker Invitational at Purdue, against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and in a triangular with the University of Sciences and John Jay College in Philadelphia.
Akron's other win was over Ohio State in Columbus.
Kuntz shoots regularly at home and on the road for the Gold Team, considered the Zips' first team; while Fabijance usually has been shooting only in home matches for the Blue Team, considered the second team.
Kuntz is a leader
Engle, whose Zips won their second straight Western Intercollegiate Rifle Conference championship last season, said that Laura Kuntz has developed into a team leader.
"[It's] not only her scores and the fact that she is very talented but it's also her leadership," said Engle, noting that Kuntz holds the school record in air rifle competition with 586, setting that mark in 2004 at home against Navy. "She is a senior and has been shooting for us for four years now. Her experience is one of the driving forces. The team elected her a co-captain along with Megan Reinking [a junior from Fort Wayne, Ind.]."
Engle said Fabijance is at the bottom of Akron's roster but is learning fast.
"He is bringing up the tail end of the team but he comes with a really good background from a junior club called the Vienna Cougars," said Engle. "He has a good foundation and is starting to excel rather quickly. He has been increasing his scores quite a bit for every match he fires. He is on an upward slope."
Engle said that intercollegiate small bore and air rifle competition are the same as used in the Olympics.
Explains the competition
In small bore, he explained that shooters use 22-caliber bullets loaded in a long rifle and aim from three positions -- standing, prone and kneeling -- at a target located 50 feet away consisting of 100 concentric circles, with the center of the target being a dot about the size of a silver dollar.
Each shooter takes 20 shots from each position, and 60 in all. Hitting the dot is worth 10 points, with one point deducted for hitting the spaces between each concentric circle. A perfect score is 600 (60x10).
In air rifle, Engle said shooters use .177-caliber lead pellets being powered by compressed air and shoot from only a standing position at the same target as in small bore, but it is located only 33 feet away. Each shooter takes 60 shots from standing position, the best score being 600.
"A compressed air tank is integrated into the air rifle. It is a removable cylindrical tank 1 1/2 inches in diameter by 12-18 inches long, depending on the size of the gun being used, with 3,000 pounds per square inch of pressure," explained Engle.
Their best scores this year
Kuntz's best scores this season were 564 in air rifle against Ohio State and 571 in small bore versus the U.S. Coast Guard, and her career-best in small bore was 581 in 2004 against Rose-Hulman.
Fabijance's top scores have been 543 in air rifle at Ohio State and 536 in small bore.
"Laura is better in small bore than she is in air rifle," believes Engle, calling Kuntz "a leader on the range and an organizer with the team, and her academic prowess is evident with a GPA average that is cresting above a 3.0 GPA." She is majoring in education.
Engle said that Kuntz' parents, Dave and Sandra, have been very supportive of the team, which consists of 15 members, and have brought lunches to the home matches for both teams.
"Her mother and father are relatively close to Akron and they come to the home matches and they usually have brought out small feasts to feed not only our team but also the opposing team in between the two rifle shoots, sort of like a halftime of the match," Engle said. "They usually bring daughter Emily who shot four years for us. She will be graduating the same time as Laura next May. Emily is majoring in criminal justice and sociology."
kovach@vindy.com