Malemute shooters on target at MAC finals

Post date: Dec 7, 2014 4:37:02 PM

The Malemutes were a very healthy bunch for the Mid Alaska Conference Championships on Friday and Saturday in the E.F. Horton Range at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Patty Center.

Lathrop compiled the top air rifle team total of 2,277 on Friday and produced the best smallbore total of 2,228 on Saturday in the six-team competition.

“It’s a small scrappy team that really pulled things together,’’ Watkins said following Saturday’s awards ceremony in the Horton Range. “I had to tell them that I can’t afford anybody to be sick because I wouldn’t have a full JV (junior varsity) team there.

“They pulled it off, they bonded well, they’ve got a great mental game and I just couldn’t have asked for a greater group of kids,’’ Watkins added.

He also was grateful to the Malemutes shooters’ parents.

“If I didn’t have the parents’ support, it would have not happened,’’ he said.

The Delta Junction Huskies were the air rifle team runner-up Friday, compiling a 2,216 total and the Hutchison Hawks placed third (2,205). The North Pole Patriots gained fourth place with a 2,158, followed by the West Valley Wolfpack (2,119) and the Tok Wolverines’ first-year rifle program with a 1,977.

The Hawks placed second Saturday in the smallbore team standings with a total effort of 2,164.

“The team as a whole has been awesome,” said Layne Lewis, in his first season as Hutchison’s head coach. “I had six returning shooters and six freshmen, and the six returners helped produce the six freshmen up. When they (freshmen) starting shooting good, the six returners had to step it up.”

Delta Junction came in third in the smallbore at 2,140, and West Valley finished fourth with a 2,050. Tok took fifth (1,946) and North Pole sixth (1,914).

The Malemutes garnered top-three individual finishes for both days of the meet, led by senior JT Schnering winning the air rifle with a 578 and placing second in the smallbore just a point behind winner and Hutchison junior Amy Gentry.

Malinda Malenfant, a Lathrop sophomore and first-year shooter, placed second Friday in the air rifle with a 570, and Gentry finished third with a 569.

Gentry fired a 573 Saturday in the smallbore competition while Schnering registered a 572 and Malemutes senior teammate Connor Gilman took third with a 556.

The air rifle title and smallbore runner-up honor were Schnering’s best conference-meet finishes in his high school career.

“I’m happy that I went out with a bang,” Schnering said Saturday.

Schnering attributed lots of practice and correcting mistakes to earning his first individual MAC title.

One correction he made this season was foot placement, which Schnering said is key to balance and structure for a shooter’s position.

“In the past couple of weeks, I’ve used a ruler where I can mark where my feet are at each time,’’ he said. “So that’s helping drastically, and I’ve gained 10 to 15 points just out of that.”

Though Schnering placed second in the smallbore, he posted a perfect 100 Saturday in his second prone stage. He also shot a 99 Friday in the fifth of six air rifle stages.

“He’s just a natural leader,” Hawkins said. “He’s somebody who sees something that maybe can help another teammate. JT is about what can I do to make somebody else better? That is the mark of a real true leader.”

Gentry, in a year’s time, went from the smallbore bronze medalist as a sophomore to the MAC champion in only her second season with the Hawks varsity. She missed the cut for Hutchison’s varsity squad as a freshman.

Gentry, following her sophomore season, competed in the Junior Olympics in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Lewis said he thinks the experience at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs benefitted for this high school season in the Interior.

“It’s a big confidence booster to be invited to a big national match with all other the top juniors in the country, and shooting at the Olympic Training Center,’’ he said. “It’s such a mental sport that it gave her a nice edge.”

Gentry developed a mental checklist this year to help her in MAC regular-season and postseason competition.

“I make sure my feet are where they should be. I check to make sure where my (rifle) butt is on my shoulder,’’ Gentry said. “I think about follow-through and trigger control, and I think of each shot as an individual match.”

Gentry said she went to a happy place mentally when she entered the range during the weekend for the MAC tournament.

“It kind of takes me away from reality, it gets me out of my comfort zone,’’ she said, “and the more I get out of it, I just do better.”

Gentry’s title effort Saturday was highlighted by a 99 for the second prone stage.

“I just wanted to do my best and give it all I had,’’ she said.

ERIN CORNELIUSSEN/FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER

Prep Rifle

West Valley's Quetzal Lubeke competes in the final match of the Region VI Rifle Championships at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range in the University of Alaska Fairbanks Patty Center on Saturday, December 6, 2014.