Of all the sports teams defending a national championship, there’s one that Ohio State students may not know exists: women’s pistol.

Comprised of four eligible shooters in the 2009-10 season, the OSU women’s team has gone undefeated for the last two-and-a-half years.

In their most recent match on Jan. 22 and 23, the women beat the Naval Academy by a 24-point margin, and the U.S. Coast Guard by more than 150 points.

Coach James Sweeney said the team is one of the best squads he’s had and they’ve really bonded as a unit.

“The senior women want to go out and leave the legacy of back-to-back national champions,” Sweeney said. “We’ve never gone back-to-back [before]. In fact, I don’t know if anyone has done back-to-back.”

Women’s pistol is made up of two events: sport and air pistol. Three women compete from each team in each event. The three scores from sport and from air are added together to determine the overall score of the women’s heat.

Similar to gymnastics, the same three girls can shoot both sport and air, or six different girls can shoot one of the six overall heats. Ultimately, six scores are combined from the two events to determine the women’s overall score.

While the girls share similar interests in outdoor activities like hiking and kayaking, and in some of their initial high school pistol experiences, each girl has her own unique story to tell.

Erin Meadows
Senior captain Erin Meadows moved from Canada to the U.S. in 2000. Meadows started competing in 4-H shooting camps in eighth grade and continued through high school.

Although she played lacrosse and was New Albany High School’s drill team captain, pistol taught her values applicable to her daily life.

“You have to be patient and open,” Meadows said. “Shooting, because you practice so much, becomes very mental and just like being in that zone.”

Pistol was not in her original college plans, but her pistol club used Ohio State’s range on Sundays for practice.

“When it came around to time to start apply[ing] to colleges, I had already met coach Sweeney,” Meadows said. “So it kind of fell into place and it worked [out] really well.”

Earning second-team All-American in air and sport pistol last season, Meadows helped the Buckeyes to the women’s team championship at the Collegiate Nationals, finishing third in sport with a score of 632.2 and fourth in air pistol with a score of 452.3.

Although the Olympics is the next big step after college, Meadows said she has no interest in pursuing pistol after graduation.

“If anything, [pistol] is just a lifelong hobby,” she said. “[It’s] an enjoyable hobby that I’ll probably have for the rest of my life.

Kelsey Imig
Ohio State Scholar-Athlete Kelsey Imig was introduced to pistol by her older brother, who connected with a Junior Olympic coach near their Westminster, Mass., home. Thinking she’d like it, he introduced the then 15-year-old Imig to the sport.

In high school, Imig shot matches run by USA Shooting, the Olympic governing body. Participating in matches at local gun clubs, she also was a member of the U.S. Olympic Developmental Team and was the Massachusetts State Junior Olympic Champion since 2005.

At OSU, Imig was named a first-team All-American in air and sport pistol. She was the top shooter that led Ohio State to the Collegiate National women’s championship. She finished second in women’s air pistol at 460.3 and fifth in women’s sport pistol at 626.0 at the Collegiate Nationals.

Christina Heaton
Sophomore Christina Heaton started shooting rifle in 4-H at the age of 15 and met Meadows at 4-H shooting camp.

After two years of rifle, a 4-H adviser recommended Heaton try pistol instead and she hasn’t looked back since, she said.

While competing in 4-H, Heaton also played soccer and ran track and cross country in high school.

“But once I started getting better at pistol I became more competitive and wanted to go further and further,” Heaton said.

After placing second in State Pistol Junior Olympics in ’07 and ’08, Heaton qualified and competed in the National Junior Olympics in air and sport pistol in 2008. She also won the open and high women’s titles at the Ohio International Pistol Championship in ‘08.

With her 4-H clubs matches held at the Ohio State range, Heaton said she met Sweeney because he was the range officer.

“I kept practicing every week because I wanted to be on the team,” Heaton said after meeting Sweeney. “Then coach [Sweeney] eventually recruited me.”

Nabila Sayed
Senior and Mumbai, India, native, Nabilia Sayed began her love affair with pistol at 17.

With her dad acting as India’s version of a boy scout, Sayed said he shot rifles and tried to get her to start shooting. In four months, she went from never holding a gun to becoming state champion and Most Promising Pistol Shooter in Maharashtra State in 2006. After seven months, she was at nationals.

Sayed competes in pistol because she’s addicted to the feeling of achievement after finishing a match and seeing her scores, she said.

“It gives me a high that I can never get out of anything else,” Sayed said. “I’ve played other sports before — basketball and swimming — [but] shooting was just something else.”

With the pursuit of a job in Logistics after graduation, Sayed also wants to try for the Olympics in the next couple years.

“[Pistol] is a part of me and I’m definitely going to pursue it,” Sayed said. “Maybe not [as] a career, but definitely [as] a hobby.”