Oct. 30, 2006
Results
FAIRBANKS, AK - The Alaska Nanook rifle team continued its defense of the national title Monday by dropping the University of Nebraska 4,674-4,655 in the second match of the season at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range in the Patty Center.
The match ended a three-day tri-meet with the Nanooks, Cornhuskers and Navy. Alaska topped Navy on Saturday and Nebraska did the same on Sunday. Alaska head coach Dan Jordan was pleased with the progress his shooters made from the Navy match to today.
"Things went a little better today," Jordan said. "I thought people improved, even if not all were satisfied with their performance."
Senior Matthias Dierolf (Uttenhofen, Germany) was the Nanooks top performer on the day winning air rifle and placing second to Matt Rawlings (Wharton, TX) in the smallbore.
"Matthias is pretty consistent in air gun," Jordan said. "It was good to see him up there."
Dierolf took the air rifle title with a score of 594, edging Nebraska's Kristina Fehlings by one point, and helped the Nanooks to the air rifle victory by a score of 2,358 to 2,353. Nanook Christian Lejon (Umea, Sweden) and Cornhusker Kim Chrostowski tied for third place with a score of 590. Rawlings, freshman Patrik Sartz (Stora Sundby, Sweden) and Nebraska's Kirsten Weiss all tied for fourth with 587.
The Nanooks also took the smallbore title behind the shooting of seniors Rawlings and Dierolf by a score of 2,316 to 2,302. The duo of Rawlings and Dierolf tallied scores of 581 and 580, respectively.
"Anytime you get two scorers over 580 you're pretty happy," Jordan said. "If you can do that it's respectable."
Nebraska's Weiss and teammate Stacy Underwood tied for third at 579 points with Lejon (578) and Sartz (577) in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jordan said the weekend was a good indicator of where the Nanooks stand.
"There's still a lot of room for improvement," he said. "But we're going to put up some big scores as the season goes on."
The Nanooks will not shoot at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range again until Feb. 9 and 10 against Navy in the NCAA Sectionals. Up next for the Nanooks is a trip to Alabama to battle Jacksonville State Nov. 10.
