Post date: Mar 15, 2014 3:40:09 PM
By Tim O’Donnell TODONNELL@NEWSMINER.COM
FAIRBANKS — Tim Sherry made a splash in his first NCAA Rifle Championships.
The Alaska Nanooks sophomore won the individual smallbore championship, thanks to a strong showing in the standing position.
Sherry and West Virginia’s Garrett Spurgeon were separated by just four-tenths of a point entering the entering the final shot.
“I did exactly what I wanted to in prone and kneeling because I usually struggle in those, but I knew I could pull it together in standing,” Sherry said in a University of Alaska Fairbanks press release.
“I was shooting it really well until the last three of four shots and I was pretty nervous heading to the end,” he added.
The Highlands Ranch, Colo. native fired a 7.7 on the final shot, barely ahead of Spurgeon’s 7.6, to claim the individual title 452.1-451.6 Friday afternoon at the Pat Spurgin Rifle Range and CFSB Center at Murray State University in Murray, Ky.
“I’m still kind of in shock about it,” Sherry said. “It’s an awesome feeling to be able to pull out these goals I had coming into this event. Hopefully, I can finish up the championship with the rest of the goals I came here with.”
In the team portion of the smallbore competition, Sherry led the Nanooks with a 586 as the Nanooks scored a 2,321 as a team. Sherry’s 586 was third overall in the team competition.
Ryan Anderson followed Sherry with a 579 while Mike Liuzza and Mats Eriksson each fired 578. Lorelie Stanfield rounded out the team score with a 576.
“We have plenty of motivation (heading to today),” Sherry said. “We’re focused on ourselves and going to put together the best air gun we can (today). (Friday) is over it’s an awesome outcome for myself but at the end of the day, it’s all over so we need to look forward to (today).”
Defending champion West Virginia leads the field after firing a 2,338 on Friday, 17 points ahead of the Nanooks.
The Mountaineers’ Ziva Dvorsak led all shooters with a 588 in the smallbore team event. Ohio State’s Amanda Luoma had the second highest score with a 587.
The Nanooks sit one point ahead of third place Memphis (2,320) and five points ahead of Kentucky (2,316).
The championships continue today with the air rifle match at 7 a.m. ADT