by Matias Saari, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
FAIRBANKS -- The Alaska Nanooks scored only two points fewer in their season-opening win against Texas El Paso on Friday than they tallied to claim their third straight NCAA Rifle Championship in March.
But the 4,660 points (to UTEP's 4,597) will be too little if they plan to follow through with another title.
"We had an all right team score today, but it's not going to be enough," junior Patrik Sartz said after the all-day match at the Patty Center. "We need to realize that all the other teams are going to get better."
With almost six months until the 2009 NCAAs, coach Dan Jordan isn't worried.
"It's about what I expected at this point," Jordan said. "We've only been here for a couple weeks so we haven't had a lot of practice matches like we normally do."
The Nanooks took the air rifle event 2,350-2,326 as Sartz tallied 591 (of 600), sophomore Taylor Beard scored 588, sophomore Cody Rutter had 587 and Fairbanks sophomore Ida Petersen had 584. Nanooks shooting as individuals included Layne Lewis of Fairbanks (585), Billy Galligan (580), Jace Bures (577), Amy Steiner (566) and Charles Whitmer (534).
In smallbore, Rutter (581) and Sartz (580) led the way to a 2,310-2,271 advantage. Lewis chipped in 577 and Galligan had 572.
"Personally, I'm satisfied, but not more (than satisfied," Sartz said. "It was two halfway decent matches, but there's a lot to improve."
Shooting as smallbore individuals, Petersen scored 573, Bures and Beard each recorded 571, Steiner shot 557 and Whitmer notched 542.
"Almost everybody shot well today. They may have had one bad string or one bad position," Jordan said. "All in all, everybody shot fairly decent for being the first match of the year."
The Nanooks have another dual meet with UTEP today, but the air rifle and smallbore competitions will be broken up by a spectator-friendly Bundesliga competition at 12:15 p.m. in the E.F. Horton Rifle Range. For the 10-shot final, music blares and attempting to distract the shooters is permitted.
Jordan will mix up today's team lineup a bit, though Sartz and Rutter will again shoot both guns.
"I'm going to pick the people that I think need match experience and can still perform well," Jordan said. "I'm not going to sacrifice quality. The other two (besides Sartz and Rutter), they can be shuffled around a little bit since the team is so close."
A challenge for all rifle shooters is posting scores in matches that are comparable to what they put up in practice.
"Maybe you get a little bit tense sometimes (in matches)," Sartz said. "It's a lot harder to relax and be aggressive in the target like we usually are in practice."
Another thing missing for the Nanooks is Sartz's fellow Swede, Christofer Olofsson, an All-American last year. Olofsson wanted to stay in Fairbanks another year, but his degree program in Sweden changed unexpectedly so he returned there, Jordan said.
"It's always nice to have someone around that has the same background of course," said Sartz, now the only foreigner on the squad. "But it's a great team, so I don't miss him too much."
