Post date: Oct 16, 2013 3:56:21 PM
By Danny Martin DMARTIN@NEWSMINER.COM
FAIRBANKS — Head coach Dan Jordan sees the Alaska Nanooks’ No. 1 ranking in the latest College Rifle Coaches Association Poll as a step toward a bigger goal — winning an NCAA national team championship.
The Nanooks leaped to the top spot among the 20 teams in the poll on Tuesday after being No. 3 in the preseason poll and last week’s rankings.
“It’s nice to see ourselves at the top of the rankings, but it’s all about where we’re at the end of the year,” Jordan said Tuesday by telephone. “So it’s just kind of one step on that goal.”
The Nanooks have 10 national team titles in their history. They won in 1994, from 1999-2004 and from 2006-08.
“We’re happy to be there, but there’s still a lot of work to be done and a lot of season to go,” Jordan said about Tuesday’s No. 1 ranking. “So we’ll keep plugging at it and working hard, and we hope to keep ourselves there all season long.”
The No. 1 ranking followed the Nanooks’ record-setting efforts Sunday against the University of Mississippi, Alaska’s second dual meet of a season-opening weekend in the E.F. Horton Range at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Patty Center.
The Nanooks won against North Carolina State on Saturday by a total score of 4,677-4,594 and set a team- record of 4,694 Sunday against Mississippi, which compiled a 4,610 total. The previous high for Alaska in a dual meet was 4,692 against Army during the spring of 2007.
Against Mississippi, the Nanooks registered a 2,362 in the air rifle and a 2,332 in smallbore. Junior Ryan Anderson shot consecutive 596 scores in the air rifle Saturday and Sunday to go with his 591 in smallbore Sunday. Both marks rank Anderson No. 1 individually in the NCAA in each discipline.
Sophomore Tim Sherry and freshman Dan Geer are each near the top of the nation’s best scores. Sherry is a point back of Anderson with a 595 in air rifle and Geer is tied for third in the NCAA with a 584 in smallbore.
The Nanooks also own the top team score in the nation so far this season and have the NCAA’s top air rifle and smallbore totals.
Kentucky, which opens its season this weekend, ranks second in the CRCA Poll. The Wildcats visit the Nanooks on Nov. 23-24, with each match starting at 9 a.m. in the E.F. Horton Range.
Texas Christian University, a Patriot Rifle Conference rival of Alaska, is ranked No. 3 after the Horned Frogs posted a season-high score 4,661 during the weekend.
West Virginia is fourth in the poll while Nebraska is fifth. Memphis holds the sixth spot while Jacksonville State of is tied for seventh with Ohio State, also a Patriot member, after being ranked No. 1.
Coincidentally, Alaska’s visits Jacksonville State on Nov. 7 in Jacksonville, Ala., and heads to Fort Worth, Texas, to face TCU on Nov. 9.