{"id":11882,"date":"2025-10-01T08:58:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=11882"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:33:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:33:36","slug":"a-shot-at-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2025\/10\/01\/a-shot-at-history\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shot at History: Women’s Rifle Competes in a Program-First NCAA Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Women\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In 2024, the Georgia Southern Women\u2019s Rifle team fell short of qualifying for the national championship by one point. In the offseason, Head Coach Soren Butler and his athletes worked to flip the script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s exactly what they did. In March 2025, the Eagles Rifle team competed in the NCAA Rifle Championship, which took place in Lexington, Kentucky, for the first time in Eagle history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia Southern finished in fifth place and wrapped the season on a high after stellar performances from Emma Pohlmann, Tori Watts, Bremen Butler, Ella Goldfaden and Emma Walrath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so proud and excited about how far the program\u2019s come in the last few years,\u201d said Butler. \u201cI know they\u2019re capable of way more, and we also know we\u2019re a really dangerous team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler and his athletes credit their achievements to high-caliber chemistry and a strong team dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had to focus on building a strong foundation for the freshman class,\u201d Butler said. \u201cBut that year, we saw scores that were a little quicker than anticipated. We were like, \u2018Hey, we have something big here.\u2019\u201d The team is built on more than just skill. Butler attributes the team\u2019s continued rise to a combination of discipline, institutional investment and a coaching philosophy centered on mindfulness and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for us was having a university that has shown they care, and we have the people who are helping our team on a daily basis,\u201d Butler said. \u201cThat\u2019s made a huge difference, because not every rifle school gets that. We\u2019re really lucky to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the national championship, the Eagles Rifle team won four straight Southern Conference championships from 2022 to 2025. For all events, it\u2019s crucial for athletes to have a strong mindset to maintain peak performance, manage stress and build resilience after setbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs much as we want to say it\u2019s scientific or quantitative, our sport is very qualitative,\u201d he said. \u201cWe work with people. If they\u2019re not doing well outside the range, there\u2019s a pretty good chance we\u2019re not going to have a good performance on the range.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Women\u2019s
During Trophy Ceremony at the SoCon Rifle Championships at Shooting Sports Education Center on February 9, 2025 in Statesboro, Georgia. (Photograph by AJ Henderson \/ Georgia Southern Athletics)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why Butler and his team of coaches emphasize a scientific approach to the athletes\u2019 mental game, and utilize sports psychological practices to keep athletes cool on bigger stages. Leading up to their voyage to Lexington, the coaches organized what is referred to as \u201cdistraction training\u201d for the athletes so that they could focus on their shots and not be led astray by big screens and the comings and goings of spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really know how your body is going to react at that time and in that moment,\u201d said Zahra Gonzalez-Mazo, a member of the Rifle team. \u201cIt\u2019s good to simulate different experiences. We had been practicing the technique for the whole semester, and then we needed to focus more on how we perform with those distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler is immensely proud of the team and their work together. \u201cIt\u2019s been a fun season,\u201d he shared. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun to work with a lot of really amazing young women. So I am really blessed and lucky to be able to do that.\u201d \u2014Jacob Notermann<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2024, the Georgia Southern Women\u2019s Rifle team fell short of qualifying for the national championship by one point. In the offseason, Head Coach Soren Butler and his athletes worked to flip the script. And that\u2019s exactly what they did. In March 2025, the Eagles Rifle team competed in the NCAA Rifle Championship, which took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":898,"featured_media":11887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-11882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-spring-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/898"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}