Dan Rebhan came to UTM prepared to compete on the mixed rifle team.

Unlike many freshmen, making the squad and handling the pressure that goes along with competing for a perennial national power wasn’t going to be too tough for this St. Louis native.

Rebhan learned about the pressure of competition and the stress involved several weeks before he came to Martin. He was selected as an alternate in the Dewar’s Cup, the annual competition between the British and the Americans, then moved up to a firing member when one of the team members was unavailable.

Rebhan’s score of 392 out of 400 was the eighth highest on the American Team.

“I went up to Camp Perry, Ohio, where they hold the national small bore matches,” Rebhan said.

Rebhan said the first few days he shot iron sights and that landed him among the top 20 shooters in the nation, and earned him a spot on the national team.

“In the past, the British have won, but this year we ended up winning,” Rebhan said.

The Dewar has been fired since before World War I. The American team put up its highest total score in recent years, a 7,820 out of 8,000 points possible. It was enough to beat the British by 14 points.

“I heard they shoot in a quarry, but at Perry we shot in the wind and we had conditions that made it a lot harder for us.” The Dewar is an international match fired by teams on their home ranges at different times.

Rebhan, just 18 years old at the time, was the youngest shooter to compete for the Americans. His teammates included former Olympians and other members of the National Development Team.

“Well, for me, I don’t think I’ll ever know what this really means, but my coach has gone to national matches every year. He says ‘people would kill to get on this team.’ He told me there are people who shoot their whole lives and never make it on the team. It was pretty great for me, but it really hasn’t sunk in for me.”

Rebhan said he wants to ride the momentum from his experience on the national team throughout this season at UTM.

“I want to make sure that I do the best I can this season,” Rebhan said. “There is some pressure to stay at the highest level of competition, but I really don’t know.”

Rebhan has not declared a major at UTM. He’s from St. Louis, Mo., but he shot competitively for a club in Highland, Ill., for coach Harry Bulberg.

“I shot there since my freshman year in high school and we shot basically all indoor matches during the winter, and I have always shot outdoor in the summer.”

UTM rifle coach Bob Beard knew Rebhan excelled at the prone position in making the Dewar Cup team.

“While the Dewar Cup was not a collegiate event, Dan’s three position scores are now approaching that level as evidence in our last tournament,” Beard said.

Rebhan shot a career-high 1,154 in smallbore at Xavier and 368 in air rifle for an aggregate score of 1,522.