Audrey Gogniat
MURRAY, Ky. – No. 7 Ole Miss rifle is set to begin the spring portion of the 2025-26 season with a road contest against No. 11 Murray State on Saturday, with competition starting at 9 a.m.
The Rebels (5-2, 4-2 PRC) are looking to build off what was an exceptional fall season. Under first-year head coach Will Shaner, the Rebels had two top 10 aggregate scores in program history, including the second-highest aggregate score in program history. Ole Miss upset No. 2 TCU to earn the top spot in the CRCA rankings in November, marking the fourth time in program history it has done so.
This weekend’s matchup will feature a fall season rematch between the Rebels and the Racers (3-2). In that match, Ole Miss pulled away with a one-point victory to begin the season 2-0.
All 10 Rebels will be shooting on Saturday. The first relay, starting at 9 a.m., will determine the scores of the match, as well as who the winner of the match is. The second relay will take place after a 30-minute cool off time from the first relay, where the remaining Rebels will compete for additional matchday reps.
On the Line
- The Rebels were the top-ranked team in the country (Nov. 17) according to the CRCA, the first time being so since 2022.
- Ole Miss lit up the scoresheet against TCU, firing top 10 program marks in smallbore (2359), air rifle (2385) and aggregate (4744).
- Gracie Dinh led the charge against the Horned Frogs, shooting a career high 1190 aggregate score. Dinh shot a 599 in air rifle, falling just one bullseye shy of becoming the third Rebel to achieve perfection in the discipline.
- Dinh and Audrey Gogniat are top 15 shooters in the country according to aggregate averages.
- Ole Miss closed the fall season with a victory over Air Force.
- Ole Miss’ 67-point victory over UTEP is its largest margin of victory since defeating John Jay College by over 400 points in 2024.
- Jordan de Jesus secured Ole Miss’ win against Murray State with a 10 on her final shot in air rifle, giving the Rebels a one-point victory.
- The Rebels’ roster features two juniors and six sophomores, who each competed multiple times last season.
- Ole Miss welcomed two freshmen, Savannah Criddle and Jadyn Morgan, as part of National Signing Day 2024.
- The 2025-26 season marks Ole Miss’ 30th season of competition.
- Head coach Will Shaner began his first season at the helm for the Rebels.
- Ole Miss hired former student-athlete Katie Tedeschi as assistant coach prior to the 2025-26 season.
- Sophomore sharpshooter Audrey Gogniat won the 2025 individual air rifle championship at the NCAA Tournament in Lexington, Kentucky.
- Gogniat holds Ole Miss’ individual smallbore and aggregate record, firing a 597 and 1197, respectively. She also tied the program air rifle record two times, shooting a perfect 600.
- Sophomore Gracie Dinh was Ole Miss’ lone CRCA All-American last season, garnering First Team Smallbore and Honorable Mention Aggregate nods.
2025-26 Fall Season in Review
The Rebels had one of the most productive fall seasons in program history, going 5-2 and becoming the top-ranked team for a period. Sophomore sensations Audrey Gogniat and Gracie Dinh have shown improvement from their excellent freshman years and have established themselves as leaders in the range.
Ole Miss opened the season with a 4735-point performance against PRC rival UTEP. That aggregate score set Ole Miss’ fifth highest in program history at the time. Gogniat and Dinh, alongside Jordan de Jesus and Regan Diamond were the top scorers in the field that day.
The Rebels followed that performance with a narrow, one-point victory over Murray State in their home opener. The win came down to the last shot, which de Jesus delivered on her 60th air rifle shot of the afternoon. She finished with a 593 in the event, allowing Ole Miss to pull ahead with an aggregate score of 4717.
After its first loss of the season to Alaska Fairbanks, Ole Miss rebounded in historic fashion against then-ranked No. 2 TCU in November. The Rebels scored 4744 as a team, setting the program’s second-highest mark ever. To do so, the Rebels shot the second-best air rifle and fifth best smallbore score Ole Miss has seen. The Rebels were awarded with the No. 1 ranking by the CRCA the following week, and spot they held for two ranking cycles.
Ole Miss closed the fall on top, winning a neutral site matchup against Air Force, 4728-4697.
Gogniat has led the Rebels in nearly every event she’s participated in this season. The Swiss sharpshooter is top five nationally in smallbore, air rifle and aggregate scores entering the spring.
Head Coach Will Shaner
- This year marks his first season as the Rebels head coach, after being promoted following two seasons as assistant coach.
- This is Shaner’s first head coaching gig.
- He earned the first victory as a head coach against UTEP.
- Guided the Rebels to their first No. 1 ranking since 2022, and fourth ever.
- A former collegiate shooter, he competed with Kentucky from 2018-22.
- Shaner was an 11-time first team All-American at Kentucky, where he helped the Wildcats win two team national championships.
- He earned CRCA Senior Shooter of the year in 2021-22. That same year, he earned the NCAA Individual Smallbore National Title.
- Shaner competed for Team USA at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, winning the gold medal in the 10-meter air rifle event.
Scouting the Opponent
Murray State
Ole Miss and Murray State will go head-to-head in the rifle range for the 12th time, with the Racers leading the overall series, 7-5. The teams split last season’s matchups, with Ole Miss claiming the head-to-head matchup and Murray State finishing higher than the Rebels in a three-team matchup which included TCU. Ole Miss has won five of the last six matchups against Murray State.
Ole Miss all-timer Lea Horvath secured her fourth career perfect air rifle score in the first meeting last season, while finish with an 1194 aggregate. Both marks tied her own then-program records, which would later be surpassed by Audrey Gogniat. Horvath swept the scoreboard in that event, as Gogniat will likely look to do in this match.
Earlier this season, Ole Miss won on the rifle equivalent of a buzzer beater when Jordan de Jesus fired a 10 on her final shot of air rifle to give Ole Miss a one-point victory. With Murray State’s score finalized at 4716, and Ole Miss sat at 4707 with one shot to go. De Jesus was the last Rebel shooting, and on her final shot, scored a 10 to give Ole Miss the victory.
Rebs in the Rankings
The Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association ranked Ole Miss as the No. 7 team in the nation in its most recent rankings.
Four other members of the Patriot Rifle Conference sit in the top 10 rankings. Nebraska sits at the No. 2 spot with TCU just behind at No. 4. Defending PRC champions Alaska Fairbanks are ninth, while UTEP rounds out the group at No. 10. Air Force and Ohio State are tied at the No. 12 spot as the other ranked members of the PRC.
History in the Making
Against TCU, the Rebels scored the second highest aggregate mark in program history and the most since setting the record in last year’s PRC Tournament. To do so, the Rebels had the fifth-highest smallbore and second-highest air rifle scores program history. Two Rebels, Gracie Dinh and Jordan de Jesus, set individual career-high marks in air rifle and aggregate scoring, while Audrey Gogniat remained a staple of high-scoring consistency. Regan Diamond also tied her career high aggregate score.
Ole Miss began the day by firing their highest smallbore score of the season with a 2359 team mark, the fifth highest in program history. It’s the most points Ole Miss has scored in the event since shattering the program record at the PRC Tournament last season.
It was in the second event of the morning where Ole miss truly shined, outscoring TCU by seven points. Ole Miss finished the event with a 2385 team score, the second best in program history. All four counters finished with at least 594 points in the event. The Rebels finished just three points shy of tying the program record in the event, set in 2022 against John Jay College.
On top of her air rifle personal best, Dinh tied a career high in smallbore with a 591-point effort, giving her a career-high 1190 aggregate. This shattered her previous best of 1185, and she finished the day as the top overall shooter in the field for the second consecutive match and fourth time in her career.
Overall, three Rebels finished inside the top six of the individual leaderboard, but it was Regan Diamond who rounded out the scoring with an eighth-place finish and an 1182 aggregate.
Bang Bang
Ole Miss opened the 2025-26 in electrifying fashion, putting up 4735 points at UTEP. The Rebels had only two scores higher than that aggregate last season, and it’s tied for the fifth-highest score in program history.
To get there, the Rebels fired a 2352 in smallbore and a 2383 in air rifle. Ole Miss’ air rifle score is tied for the third highest in program history. Audrey Gogniat led the charge, scoring 594 in smallbore and 598 in air rifle. She began air rifle with 55 consecutive bullseyes but fell just shy of completing her third career perfect air rifle score.
Four Rebels housed the top four aggregate finishes, with Gracie Dinh, Jordan de Jesus and Regan Diamond following Gogniat in scoring.
Ole Miss will look to build on that momentum for the remainder of the season.
Audrey Gogniat: National Champion
Following a historic freshman campaign where she only appeared in seven matches, Audrey Gogniat is back and looking for improvement. The reigning national air rifle and PRC aggregate champion has made a splash in the collegiate rifle world and has personally rewritten Ole Miss’ record books.
Now the owner of the top three smallbore scores in program history, the top aggregate score the NCAA has seen since 2015 and a pair of perfect 600s in air rifle, there’s not much to say about Gogniat that hasn’t already been said. With her back in the rotation, Gogniat is looking to lead Ole Miss to a team title while continuing to excel as an individual.
Gogniat is the only active student-athlete at Ole Miss who has earned a medal in an Olympic sport, and the seventh in Ole Miss athletic history. She’s the only Ole Miss rifle athlete to medal in the Olympics.
It came down to the last shot last season, after Gogniat outlasted a ferocious comeback attempt from Kentucky’s Braden Peiser. She fired a 10.6 on the tiebreak shot to Peiser’s 9.9.
With her accomplishment, Gogniat is the second Rebel to medal in the national tournament, joining former teammate Lea Horvath. Horvath earned two bronzes in the 2021 national tournament for both smallbore and air rifle.
Gogniat reached the final round after firing the second perfect 600 in air rifle of her career in the preliminary round. She had the highest score of the day, with Peiser and TCU’s Katie Zaun firing 599 each. Gogniat and Horvath combined for three perfect scores last season for Ole Miss, showing a collective improvement in the event. Ole Miss was one of two teams, and the only one in the PRC, to fire three total perfect scores last season.
The Le Noirmont, Switzerland, native fired the best individual aggregate score in Ole Miss history with an 1197 mark. It’s the highest among all NCAA shooters this season and set the best mark in Division I collegiate rifle since at least 2014-15.
To do that, Gogniat broke her own Ole Miss smallbore record with a 597 mark, as well as becoming the second Rebel to ever fire a perfect 600 in air rifle. In total, Gogniat missed only three bullseyes on the weekend while recording 99 center shots.
In her collegiate debut, Gogniat toed the line for the first time as a Rebel on Jan. 18 and casually swept the No. 1 spot in each event of the day. She tied the then-program record in smallbore with a 594 mark and followed that with a 599 finish in air rifle to form an 1193 aggregate. All three scores were the highest of the day in the field as she reached an Ole Miss season-high 100 center shots.
In the NCAA Qualifier, she fired a 596 in smallbore. In doing so, she officially holds the three highest smallbore scores by an individual in Ole Miss school history.
Weekend Sweep
Ole Miss closed the fall season with a three-team tournament against Nebraska and Air Force, followed by a neutral site match against Air Force. The Rebels bested the Falcons in both days of competition, ending the fall portion of the season with a clean sweep.
Ole Miss outperformed its day of competition in the second and head-to-head bout with Air Force. The Rebels had the top four shooters in smallbore, while claiming three of the top five in air rifle.
The Sophomore Six
Aptly nicknamed the “Sophomore Six,” all members of the 2023 signing class are returning to Oxford for their second season of competition for the Rebels. Arguably the most talented class of athletes in all collegiate rifle, this group boasts some of the top competitors entering the 2025-26 campaign.
Audrey Gogniat, Gracie Dinh and Jordan de Jesus headline the group as the three most experienced competitors from last season, with Susan Carter, Claudia Muzik and Kayla Riewe providing invaluable depth to the lineup. All six were counters last season in at least one event, with Dinh being the only Rebel during the 2024-25 season to serve as counter in both smallbore and air rifle in all 13 appearances.