UTEP Miners

Austin Litherland, a former NCAA rifle student-athlete for Tennessee Tech and Akron and a 4-H club shooting coach, was named the head coach for the UTEP rifle team on April 30, 2018. 
 
Under his tutelage the Miners have produced back-to-back seasons with an average smallbore score of at least 2270 for the first time since 2010-12 and the third occasion in program history. UTEP also achieved the feat from 2004-06. The Orange and Blue have never had three consecutive such years, something Litherland’s charges are hoping to change in 2020-21.
 
The Miners have continued to succeed in air rifle during Litherland’s tenure, extending the streak of producing an air rifle average of at least 2315 to a school-record five consecutive years. UTEP finished with an average of 2317 in air rifle in 2019-20, up one point from the readout of 2316 in his first season on the range.
 
UTEP’s average aggregate of 4588 in 2019-20 ties as the sixth-highest in program history. Aiding in that average was the Miners surpassing 4600 in three of the final four matches on the season, including a campaign-high 4610 against Jacksonville State (2/20). UTEP nearly matched that total after firing a 4608 in the season finale during its NCAA Qualifier match (2/22).

In his first year with the program, the Miners recorded their best smallbore average (2270) in three years and their sixth highest since the NCAA changed the scoring system for the start of the 2004-05 season. There were four different matches with a score of at least 2284 in the discipline, something UTEP achieved three times total the previous six seasons (2012-13 through 2017-18). The season high (2290) in smallbore matched the Miners' second-best score in the discipline in seven years.

UTEP's air rifle average (2316) and aggregate average (4586) both ranked seventh on the school's single-season list. The Miners posted a season-best aggregate (4611) at Ohio State (11/10/18). That effort came during a three-match surge with an aggregate of at least 4600, which equaled the second-longest streak at UTEP in seven years. There was also a readout of 4610 at the Patriot Rifle Conference Championships. The tally easily surpassed the team's previous top aggregate (4594, 2016) in its fifth year of shooting at the event. 

Litherland previously spent eight years mentoring individuals as the 4-H club shooting coach in his hometown of St. Francisville, La. He developed practices in both shooting disciplines (air rifle and smallbore) in a safe manner, motivated and encouraged his squad members to excel on the range and in the classroom, advised the application process for NCAA Athletics, matched ammunition with both smallbore and air rifles and kept an inventory of range equipment.

A former Level 1 Certified Shooting Range Official, Litherland helped develop three high school student-athletes who went on to compete at the collegiate level with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Air Force Academy and Morehead University. One of them subsequently made the 2016 United States Olympic Team.

Additionally he served as a range official volunteer for USA Shooting in Fort Benning, Ga., in the summers from 2008-10. Litherland was responsible for managing a crew of five volunteers for the World Cup gun locker, developing and implementing an inventory tracking system of the U.S. World Cup while also maintaining the targeting system on both 50 meter and 25 meter ranges.

Litherland competed for three years at Tennessee Tech before the program was discontinued. He was the Ohio Valley Conference Air Rifle Athlete of the Month in Nov. 2009 and ranked in the top eight of the league for both air rifle and smallbore as a junior. He was a two-time member of the Academic Dean’s list and graduated with a bachelor’s degree of science in interdisciplinary studies in 2011.

He then joined the Zips, helping them win the 2012 Mid Atlantic Conference rifle championship. Litherland rated fifth on the squad for 40-shot air rifle average. He completed his master’s degree in sport administration from the school in 2012.  

Litherland competed with the West Feliciana 4H rifle team from 2001-07, serving as a co-captain from 2004-07. He was a three-time (2003-05) Louisiana State Junior Olympic champion who went on to finish 75th at the National Rifle Championships in 2006.