Post date: Mar 13, 2015 5:15:22 PM
Danny Martin Dmartin@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS—Dan Jordan was in his second season as head coach of the Alaska Nanooks rifle team in 2007 when he learned his alma mater, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, would be the host for that year’s NCAA Championships.
“It was kind of crazy,’’ Jordan, now in his 10th season, said Wednesday afternoon in the UAF Patty Center, the site of this year’s NCAA Rifle Championships today and Saturday.
The 2007 NCAA Championships, said Jordan, were scheduled for another college, which decided not to be the host.
“For some reason, they dropped out. So we only found about it 90 days before we hosted it,’’ Jordan said. “So it was a last-minute go. So when we heard and we knew they (NCAA Championships) were coming up, we wanted to make it big. We wanted to make it something no one had seen before.”
UAF was the first to conduct the meet’s air rifle matches in a gymnasium, and the 919 spectators it drew on the final day set an attendance record for the NCAA meet.
Jordan, who has competed internationally, said that many spectators is a rarity for a rifle competition anywhere. The crowd in the Patty Center was special and shocking to the Nanooks and the meet’s other shooters.
“One, it’s like ‘Wow! There’s this many people that care about what I do,’” Jordan said lightheartedly. “In hockey and basketball games, people have the opportunity to come out and support them; whereas with the rifle, it needs to be a big event to get people to come out like that.
“It was great watching them (shooters) walk in the door and their jaws just drop,’’ he added. “To see that much support was really neat.”
Those spectators got to see the Nanooks celebrate the NCAA team championship. The Nanooks edged runner-up Army by a total score of 4,662 to 4,644.
Alaska had first-team All-Americans for air rifle in seniors Matt Rawlings, Matthias Dierolf and Christian Lejon, and freshman Patrick Sartz. Rawlings, Lejon and Dierolf also gained first-team All-America for smallbore. Sartz also was a second-team All-American in smallbore while freshman Becky Hersberger and Jace Bures garnered second-team All-America, respectively, for air rifle and smallbore.
“It’s fun for me winning championships, but it’s all about them,’’ Jordan reflected. “I want to see them win a championship because they’re the ones who do put in the hard work, they’re the ones that are put in all that effort.
“We had an incredibly close group last time (2007) like we do now,’’ said Jordan, “and it was so much fun to see their reaction and see their joy when they won it.”
The Nanooks had more than 90 days to prepare for this year’s NCAA meet. The NCAA announced in December 2013 that UAF would be the site of the 2015 rifle championships after it won the bid to be host.
Nanooks senior Mats Eriksson said there’s a fun element about competing in the NCAA Championships at your home campus.
“It’s going to be a special match, it’s going to be a lot of fun,’’ Eriksson said. “We put a lot of effort into this. It’s the NCAA Championships and it’s going to be a big match regardless of where we shoot it.
“But that it’s at home, it’s going to be so much fun to have,’’ he added.
The Nanooks enter this year’s NCAA meet ranked second in the College Rifle Coaches Association Poll and seeking the 11th team title in the program’s history. Alaska also has the defending NCAA individual smallbore champion in junior Tim Sherry.
Shooting their game, said Jordan, will be a key for the Nanooks in the their home gym and range. Today’s smallbore matches take place in the E.F. Horton Range downstairs in the Patty Center and Saturday’s air rifle competition will be conducted upstairs in the gym.
“The main thing is we shoot our game and not worry about everybody else,’’ he said. “We have had some of the highest smallbore scores in the country this year, by far. So as long as we go in there and do that, and if everybody shoots what they should, we’ll be just fine.
“And that’s the key in championships,’’ Jordan added.
A team’s top four scores each in smallbore and air rifle count toward the standings.
The other teams in the NCAA meet are No. 1-ranked and defending champion West Virginia; No. 3 Jacksonville State, of Alabama; No. 4 Nebraska; Nov. 5 Kentucky; Nov. 6 Texas Christian; No. 7 Air Force; and No. 8 Murray State, of Kentucky. West Virginia is vying for the 17th title in its history.
NCAA Notes
Eriksson received the Elite 89 Award at Thursday night’s NCAA Championships Banquet at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel and Conference Center.
The award goes to the shooter in the NCAA meet with the top grade-point average. Eriksson, a business administration major Malung, Sweden, carries a 3.98 GPA.
• There are eight shooters without teams who are entered in the NCAA meet. The group consists of Memphis sophomore Amy Fister (smallbore); Ohio State freshman Drew Cheezum (smallbore and air rifle) and junior Remington Lyman (smallbore); Tennessee-Martin sophomore Dacotah Faught (smallbore and air rifle); Mississippi sophomore Alison Weisz (smallbore); Navy sophomore Daniel Jonas (smallbore); Akron junior Matt Chezem (air rifle); and Nevada freshman Emily Capaul (air rifle).