In a season full of record breaking performances, the TCU rifle team has closed the season with one more: its first athlete to qualify for the NCAA individual championships.Senior Celeste Green qualified for the 2006 National Collegiate Rifle Championships on March 10-11 in three-position smallbore shooting; her score of 586 in 60-shot smallbore at the Feb. 11 NRA Sectionals & NCAA Qualifier broke a TCU record that she set less than a month before.

Green, who was a 2003 NRA all-American, said being selected was an honor after missing the chance her freshman year at TCU.

“Actually, it means a lot,” Green said. “The first year I was here at TCU I was at the peak of my game … I wasn’t able to go my first year; that was pretty upsetting to me. After that my competitive drive took a nose dive.”

Despite her success, Green said the road to her present situation has been winding. After her sophomore year at TCU, Green transferred to West Point but was medically discharged just before the start of the academic semester with Neurocardiogenic Syncope, a condition she developed after a head injury. Green returned to Lufkin – her hometown – and attended a community college before returning to TCU at the beginning of the 2005-2006 season.

Green said the arrival of head coach Karen Monez, who already had an NRA Championship victory under her belt, was an extra incentive to become a Horned Frog once again.

“When I found out that Karen Monez was coming here to TCU, I was excited,” Green said. “I mean just being around somebody that’s accomplished so much, she kind of has like an aura around her. Just the fact that she’s a shooter means we can relate on so many levels that no one else can see.”

Green said the wide-open nature of shooting competitions gives her the chance for a victory.

“To tell you the truth, I could take it,” Green said. “When you go into these matches, you don’t know who’s going to win … My guess is as good as your guess.