FAIRBANKS – Ryan Anderson,
Tim Sherry,
Sagen Maddalena and
Lorelie Stanfield represented the Alaska Nanook rifle team at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship this September.
Anderson was the top American male shooter at the competition in both the air rifle competition and the three-position, an honor that coach
Dan Jordan knows will be beneficial for the whole season.
"For Ryan to be the top male shooter in the events he participated in is a big deal," said Jordan. "But really, for all of our shooters to gain that kind of international experience is huge for them going into the collegiate season."
Sherry placed 11th in the 60-shot rifle prone junior event and turned in a pair of 39th-place finishes in the junior air rifle competition and the junior three-position.
In day two of the Championship, Maddalena placed 33rd in the 40 shot air rifle competition with a point total of 413. That score put her as the second highest finishing American woman in the event
Meanwhile, Stanfield helped lead the United States to a fourth-place finish in the women's junior prone event as she turned in her own fourth-place score of 621.4. In the three-position smallbore Stanfield earned a 28th-place finish.
Jordan expects the experience his shooters gained in Spain to ease the pressure off them in the regular season.
"Shooting at the international level kind of makes shooting at the collegiate level not seem like such a big task," he explained. "It can teach them how to deal with the pressure of NCAA competition all the way through the Championships."
Both Anderson and Sherry will now travel to the Championships of the Americas in Guadalajara, Mexico from October 11-20. The rest of the team will open the 2014-15 regular season on October 11 with a match against the University of Tennessee Martin.
