After 70 years of competition, five consecutive and 19 total Ohio Valley Conference Championships and 36 appearances in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, the Murray State Rifle team is 2-1 at the beginning of the 2025-2026 rigorous trek back to the national championships.
“Our goal for the start of every season is to play on the last day,” said head coach Alan Lollar.
After serving as head athletic trainer at Ole Miss, Richmond and Murray State, Lollar became the interim head coach of the Racer rifle team in 2007 and has one of the most successful careers of any coach in school history.
The 10-time OVC coach of the year has produced 12 OVC Freshmen of the Year, 23 OVC Rifle Athletes of the Year, 35 All-Americans and 138 All-OVC Selections within the last two decades. As he enters his 20th season as head coach, Loller emphasizes consistency, gaining experience and translating good practice into game play as the means to make it to the team’s 37th national championship.
Rifle’s 71st team consists of shooters from far and wide, with competitors hailing from the East Coast, the Deep South, the Midwest and Europe. Three new faces will make their collegiate debut this season, and also two seasoned veteran seniors will anchor the team.
Rome native Paola Paravati was named OVC Freshman of the Year during the 2022-2023 season after competing with the Italian national team for four years prior to her collegiate career. The senior has placed in the top ten in two matches this season.
Newcomer Lea Soule began her rookie season with three top-five finishes, quickly proving her vital role on the team. Joining the Racers from Texas, Soule is a 2x Junior Olympics Qualifier and a 4x Texas 4-H National Shooting Sports team member.
OVC 2025 Freshman of the Year, Air Rifle Co-Athlete of the Year and Pezzana, Italy, native Carlotta Salafia is beginning her second year as a Racer and has earned three first place individual titles and one runner-up finish in four tournaments this season. The 2025 NCAA fourth place air rifle finisher entered the range for the first time only six years ago and has grown to love the focus and discipline it takes to thrive in the sport.
“You have to be 100% in the present moment,” Salafia said. “We definitely train our mental game a lot, just as much as the physical part.”
Senior and two-time Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association’s Scholastic All-American Grace Foley was a dancer for 16 years prior to her rifle career. The flexibility and strength she built from nearly two decades of dancing translated perfectly to rifle, as she takes pride in her ability to remain present and steady in the range.
“It’s challenging,” Foley said. “It’s something that makes you want to get better every single time.”
After three months of thorough training and team bonding, the Racers have built a fluid dynamic that promotes dutiful dedication, purposeful preparation and competitive intensity.
The Racers have seven competitions remaining before the conference championship in February and the national championship in March. The Racers took nine of the top 10 individual spots at the 2024-2025 national championship qualifier, and the team finished in the top eight at the national competition.
The Racers will host Jacksonville State at their home range, the Pat Spurgin Rifle Range, on Sunday, Nov. 2, in hopes of earning their third win of the 2025-2026 season.