Photo by Hannah Morgan White/Ole Miss Athletics
In her first year with the Ole Miss Rifle team, freshman Audrey Gogniat has already made her mark on the team by taking home the 2025 NCAA air rifle individual championship at the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum with a score of 251 on March 15.
Gogniat entered the final with a score of 600-58X in air rifle regulation, only two Xs away from a perfect score, which would have been unprecedented in the history of the NCAA Rifle Championship.
A native of Le Noirmont, Switzerland, Gogniat was inspired by her father to take up rifle shooting at just eight years old. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she began taking the time to pursue rifle seriously.
“I was going (to the range) once a week. I was doing it for fun….Then, I realized I have to practice maybe three or four times a week,” Gognait said. “In 2022, I was training every day for around six hours, and now, I am in college. I cannot do six hours a day, so I’m just doing the half.”
Before arriving at Ole Miss, Gogniat competed across Europe. In 2023, she secured a sixth place finish for Switzerland in the International Shooting Sport Federation in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Along with this accomplishment, she medaled in the last two European Shooting Championships, earning a silver in 2023 in Estonia and a bronze in Hungary in 2024. Even with all of these accomplishments, Gognait has faced adversity.
“After the European championship in 2022, I finished last. I realized I needed to change something because I was not okay with how I was performing,” Gogniat said. “I took responsibility and told myself I need to work really hard.”
After being recruited to continue rifle in the United States, Gogniat decided Ole Miss was the best option. A month before arriving in Mississippi, she traveled to Paris to compete in the 2024 Olympics.
She won a bronze medal for Switzerland in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Final. Once she arrived in the United States, Gogniat had to adjust to a few things.
“I think everything is huge compared to Europe, but also shooting here as a team, and not individual,” Gogniat said.
Collegiately, there are team and individual competitions.
Although the freshman does not know her plans for the future, she is focusing on her current role with the Rebels.
“For me, it will always be shooting first,” Gogniat said.
