Post date: Oct 10, 2013 1:55:15 PM
By Danny Martin dmartin@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS — All those targets will mean something this weekend for the Alaska Nanooks rifle team, which opens the regular season against the University of Mississippi and North Carolina State University.
Mississippi, more popularly known as Ole Miss, and North Carolina State compete against each other starting at 9 a.m. Friday in the E.F. Horton Range at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Patty Center. The Nanooks and North Carolina State face one another at the same time Saturday morning and Mississippi and the Nanooks trade shots at 9 a.m. Sunday.
The three days of competition, consisting of smallbore and air rifle matches, features three teams ranked in the latest Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association Poll. Alaska is No. 3, Mississippi No. 14 and North Carolina State No. 16.
The Nanooks placed fourth in last season’s NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Alaska captured 10 national team titles — 1994, from 1999-2004 and from 2006-08.
The Nanooks competed two weeks ago in their Alumni Match, which included 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jamie (Beyerle) Gray shooting for the squad of former Nanooks.
“That was a good high-pressure situation to start the season,’’ Dan Jordan, in his eighth season as the Nanooks head coach, said during a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. “But this (weekend) is the first real match and there’s pressure knowing that things count.
“We’ve been shooting really good the last two weeks, ramping up to this,’’ Jordan added.
The Nanooks are facing Ole Miss and N.C. State programs that are competition-tested this fall.
The Wolfpack, of Raleigh, N.C., won at the South Eastern Air Rifle Conference 1 on Sept. 21 in Lexington, Va., against North Georgia, Wofford, The Citadel and host Virginia Military Institute.
The Rebels, of Oxford, Miss., opened against Army and host University of Memphis in the Tiger Invitational on Oct. 3 in Memphis, Tenn., and took on Army on Oct. 5 in Ole Miss’s inaugural Shoot Pink Match, a fundraiser for breast cancer research.
Jordan, though, wants the Nanooks to focus on themselves in the season opener.
“We want to focus on competing against ourselves, and we’ve got quality shooters,’’ he said. “We always want everybody to push each other.”
Among the standouts for the Nanooks are returner Ryan Anderson, a junior from Great Falls, Va., and a First-Team All-American last season in smallbore and and a Second Team All-American in air rifle. Anderson placed fourth individually in smallbore at the NCAA’s and posted the highest score in the individual final.
Seniors Mike Liuzza and Dustin Chesebro and junior Mats Eriksson are also back from All-America finishes last season.
Liuzza, from New Orleans, garnered a smallbore Second Team All-America honor and Honorable All-America in air rifle. Chesebro, from
Laramie, Wyo., was a Second Team All-American in air rifle, and Eriksson, from Malung, Sweden, earned Honorable Mention All-America in the same discipline.
Jordan is also expecting a strong freshman season from Colorado Springs native Dan Geer, the reigning Colorado State Junior Olympics champion.
“He’s a really strong smallbore shooter and his air gun is in the works, but it’s coming along really well,’’ Jordan said.
Sophomore and Lathrop High School graduate Lorelie Stanfield could make a push for a top-five roster spot for the Nanooks.
“She walked on for us last year and she’s coming on really good,’’ Jordan said. “She wants to be in the top five for us at the (NCAA) championships and her scores are starting to come on good.”
This also is the Nanooks’ first season in the Patriot Rifle Conference, which includes TCU, Air Force, Ohio State, Nevada and Texas-El Paso.
“Two great things about it (conference) is it helps solidify our schedule and having a conference championship is a good high-level, high-pressure match a month before the NCAA’s,’’ Jordan said.
The conference championships are set for Feb. 8-9 in Columbus, Ohio, and the NCAA Championships take place March 14-15 in Murray, Ky.
Contact sports editor Danny Martin at 459-7586