Rifle Signs Garner and Hankey to NLI
11/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rifle
FORT WORTH - TCU Rifle head coach Karen Monez has announced that the program has signed Rachel Garner and Nicole Hankey to National Letters of Intent. The duo will be freshmen in the fall. "I am thrilled to have both Rachel and Nicole joining the Horned Frog family next fall," Monez said. "Both are very talented individuals and I look for them to excel not only on the shooting range, but to be top performers academically. Rachel and Nicole have been training and competing together at the junior level for several years. They have both already achieved success in this sport and I look for them to continue to improve as members of the TCU team."
Garner, who hails from Celina, Texas, comes from a family of collegiate rifle shooters as her brother Michael, is a member of Army's rifle team.
She is coming off a stellar 2014 season, which saw her win the smallbore title in the J2 category at the USA Nationals. She also won gold in air rifle and bronze in smallbore at the Texas State Junior Olympics. In 2013, she finished second at nationals in the same category for smallbore and was a gold medalist in that discipline at the National Junior Olympics. Garner also took home a bronze medal at the 2012 National Junior Olympics.
She has excelled away from the range as well, serving as the National Honor Society President in both her junior and senior years.
Hankey, a McKinney native, is a fellow teammate of current Horned Frogs Katie Bridges and Mindy Milles on the USA Shooting National Junior team. She earned her spot after qualifying at the National Championships held at Fort Benning, Ga.
At the championships, she was one of three junior women to qualify for three finals at the championships where she won silver at the Junior Women's 50-meter Smallbore Position Championships finishing just two points behind the gold-medalist. She narrowly missed making the podium in the women's open smallbore event, trailing former Horned Frog Sarah Beard, who finished third, by one point.
A three-time qualifier for the Junior Olympic National Shooting Championships, Hankey has collected numerous medals. She was a bronze medalist at the 2014 Texas Junior Olympic Smallbore Rifle Championships and the 2011 and 2012 Texas Junior Olympic Air Rifle Championships. Hankey earned silver medals at the 2013 Texas Junior Olympic Air Rifle Championships and the 2012 Texas Junior Olympic Smallbore Championships.
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