Masters sweeps women’s JO qualifier

Post date: Dec 14, 2011 3:57:12 PM

Forest Masters of Valdez swept the women’s competition and Alaska Nanooks dominated the men’s competition at the Alaska Junior Olympics Rifle Championships held Friday through Sunday at the University of Alaska Fairbanks E.F. Horton Range.

A record number of shooters competed in the event with 47 entries in the air rifle competition and 31 in the smallbore event.

Shooters traveled from Delta Junction, Valdez, Anchorage, Eagle River, Chugiak and Kenai to participate in the event that serves as a qualifier for the Junior Olympic National Championships.

Which shooters qualified for the national championships won’t be known until late January when all of the qualifying events throughout the country have concluded.

Masters won the women’s air rifle competition with a score of 380, while Lathrop’s Jaimie Barnes was second with a personal best 377 and Amber Poston from the University of Alaska Anchorage took the bronze medal with a 375.

Masters captured the women’s smallbore event with a 564, followed by Kasey Barnes of Lathrop with a personal best 544 and Alexandrea Lorentz of West Anchorage with a 542.

The Nanooks Ryan Anderson won the gold in the man’s air rifle with a 578 and teammate Mike Liuzza was second, also posting a 578. The bronze medal went to Reniel Aljibe of Dimond High School in Anchorage with a 566.

Liuzza captured the gold in the smallbore event with a 573, with Anderson taking second at 570 and Donald Hannan, also a member of the Nanooks squad, got the bronze with a 561.