UAF shooters take sixth in NCAA Rifle Championships

Post date: Mar 15, 2016 2:10:34 PM

Photo by Eric Engman

By Danny Martin Dmartin@newsminer.com

The Alaska Nanooks didn’t get to add an 11th championship trophy on Saturday to their history in the NCAA Rifle Championships.

The Nanooks finished sixth in the team standings of this year’s competition in Akron, Ohio, generating a 4,664 total score after Saturday’s air rifle matches, which Luke Johnson led Alaska with a sixth-place effort.

West Virginia captured its fourth straight team championship and 18th in its history with a 4,703 total. Texas Christian University placed second (4,694) and Murray State, of Kentucky, rounded out the top three with a 4,690 total in the two-day meet at the Louis and Frieda Stile Field House.

“The overall outcome isn’t what we wanted,’’ Nanooks head coach Dan Jordan said Saturday in a University of Alaska Fairbanks press release. “We have to take this and make a plan for next year.

“We have some evaluating to do and see what we can work on in the offseason to get better,” Jordan continued. “We struggled a bit at times this year, and we didn’t have the best weekend at the (NCAA) championships. It’s time to move forward, and we’ll use this experience as motivation for next year.”

Alaska entered Saturday’s competition in fourth place in the team standings after recording a 2,313 total in Friday’s smallbore matches.

The Nanooks registered a total score of 2,351 to place seventh in the air rifle on Saturday at Louis .

Johnson had one of his best performances on the range for the Nanooks, posting a career-best 593 in the air rifle to finish fourth in his relay state.

The sophomore from Marysville, Pennsylvania, hit the 10-point mark (X) 48 times to tie for the highest air rifle score in the first relay. Johnson advanced to the final round, where he finished sixth with a 122.1.

“Luke stepped up big,” Jordan said. “He had a great air gun match.

“This is where he has wanted to be all year, and it’s great that he was able to put forth this kind of performance at the championships,” Jordan added. “He did great in the final; there was a lot of energy and he shot in front of a big crowd, so it’s good to experience that.”

Redshirt sophomore Sagen Maddalena placed 21st for the Nanooks with a 589. Redshirt junior Soren Butler just missed out on another top-30 finish at the NCAA Championships, as he scored a 587 to place 31st.

Freshman and Lathrop High School graduate JT Schnering shot a 582 to place 42nd in his first NCAA Championships air rifle match and senior Tim Sherry closed his career for the Nanooks with 43rd-place score of 580.

West Virginia finished first in air rifle with a 2,365 and Ginny Thrasher won the event for the Mountainers wtih a 208.8, and she added that victory to the smallbore title she earned Friday with a 461.5.

On Saturday night at the NCAA Rifle Championships Banquet, Sherry, the 2014 NCAA individual smallbore champion, and Maddalena were named All-Americans by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association and the National Rifle Assocation. The duo also was named to the U.S. National Rifle Team.

Maddalena became a two-time NRA All-American on Saturday as she was named to its air rifle and smallbore first teams. The native of Groveland, California, also earned CRCA All-America.

Maddalena, an NRA All-American for the second year in a row and five-time All-American oveall, averaged a 593 in air rifle this season and won six individual titles in the event. She shot 597 or higher in six meets this season.

Sherry was named to the NRA All-American first team for smallbore and the senior from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was named to the CRCA All-America second team, bringing his career All-America honors to nine.

Sherry averaged 585.8 in smallbore through 12 matches this season, and he posted four of Alaska’s top five individual scores in the event in 2015-16.

His season best was a 590 in the regular-season opener against Ohio State and he posted a 586 or better in six meets during his senior season.