University of Alaska Fairbanks Athletics

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FAIRBANKS – The second-ranked Alaska rifle program is back home this weekend and will face a pair of opponents in No. 9 Ohio State on Saturday and The Citadel on Monday at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range.
 
In addition, the two visiting schools will also face one another on Sunday. All three matches are set for 9 a.m. starts. The Buckeyes, also a member of the Patriot Rifle Conference with Alaska, is 4-2 in dual matches this season while the Bulldogs out of Charleston, S.C., are 2-1 this season.
 
The Nanooks (7-0) dropped one spot to No. 2 in this week's Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association poll after the CRCA went to its three-score average to determine the rankings. In this format, placement is configured from a team's highest home match score and highest two scores away from home.
 
Alaska's three-score average was 4691.33, which was two-thirds of a point off Kentucky's 4692.0, which put the Wildcats back to No. 1 despite falling twice to the Nanooks in November up in Fairbanks.
 
A team score of 4704 in either of their two matches this week would put the 'Nooks back atop the rankings.
 
The squad is coming off a 4680-4624 victory over then-No. 7 Air Force on Jan. 9 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Nanooks fired scores of 2359 in air rifle and 2321 in smallbore.
 
They were paced by junior Mats Eriksson (Malung, Sweden/Business Administration) who tied the match highs with a 592 in air rifle and 582 in smallbore. Junior Ryan Anderson (Great Falls, Va./Biological Sciences) matched Eriksson's air gun score while sophomore Tim Sherry (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mechanical Engineering) tied the Swede's smallbore tally.
 
Three members of the program also qualified for the 2014 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup USA, which will take place March 26 through April 3 in Fort Benning, Ga.
 
Anderson qualified second in the three-position (3x40) match while Sherry took fourth in the same event. Senior Mike Liuzza (New Orleans, La./Business Administration) was also fourth in the prone match.