Post date: Feb 10, 2014 9:38:05 PM
By Tim O’Donnell TODONNELL@NEWSMINER.COM
FAIRBANKS — It didn’t take long for the Alaska Nanooks to assert their claim as the best team in the Patriot Rifle Conference. A day after leading all teams in the smallbore, the Nanooks again led all teams in air rifle to win the Patriot Rifle Conference Championship on Sunday at the Lt. Hugh W. Wylie Range at Ohio State.
The Nanooks shot 2,339 in smallbore on Saturday and 2,363 in air rifle to give them a team score of 4,702, tying the program record set Nov. 23, 2013, against then-No. 1 Kentucky.
Air Force finished 53 points behind the Nanooks for second and Texas Christian University finished third.
This was the first season in program history that the Nanooks have been part of a conference.
“We had three people in each final, so that’s some really good individual finals experience,” Nanooks head coach Dan Jordan said in a University of Alaska Fairbanks press release. “They had the opportunity to feel what it’s going to be like to shoot one gun each day and how to prepare for each one of those. It accomplished exactly what all the conference coaches were wanting.”
Ryan Anderson, who won the individual smallbore title on Saturday, led all shooters with a 596 in air rifle. He would finish second in the individual competition to Air Force’s Meredith Carpentier.
Tim Sherry shot a 591 in the team competition and finished third in the individual final. Mats Eriksson fired a 591, Lorelie Stanfield shot 586 and Mike Liuzza added a 585 for the Nanooks team score.
“We talked about trusting our air gun and getting it back to where it should be,” Jordan said. “We were really trying to go in and have some fun this weekend. We don’t want to get too wrapped up or too nervous with the conference championship when we have NCAAs. We’ll go in relaxed and be able to perform [this way].”
Texas Christian’s Sally Li had the second highest air rifle score at 595.
The six-team Patriot Conference, which was formed this past summer, includes the Nanooks, Air Force, Texas Christian University, Ohio State, Nevada and Texas El-Paso.
The Nanooks are off until they host Nevada and Texas El-Paso for an NCAA qualifier Feb. 22-23 at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range.