FAIRBANKS – Alaska fell just short of its 11th National Collegiate Athletic Association championship as, for the second straight season the Nanooks finished national runners-up to now three-time defending champion West Virginia.
Team Results
Individual Results
Alaska won the smallbore championship last night, holding off West Virginia by an impressive twelve shots, but it was unable to overcome the top air rifle team in the nation, as the Mountaineers rallied to defeat the Nanooks by two overall shots, 4,702 to 4,700.
"Coming in we knew that we were probably the top smallbore team in the country," said head coach Dan Jordan. "We shot really well yesterday, but we came up just short today. West Virginia shot a phenomenal air gun today. We can't do anything more than what we did. Both teams shot really well this weekend."
In third place overall was Texas Christian University, who matched Nebraska's 4,667 points, but hit 13 more 10x-shots to clinch the tiebreaker. The Cornhuskers did place in the smallbore competition, as they were in third place after last night's action. Jacksonville State was the Championships' fifth-place team and also went home with a trophy, as it finished in third place in the air rifle portion. Kentucky's tally of 4,657 was good for sixth-place, while the United States Air Force Academy and Murray State placed seventh and eighth, respectively.
Alaska's Tim Sherry placed eighth overall after finals, to lead the Nanooks, following up on his fifth-place individual finals in smallbore, last night.
Maren Prediger of West Virginia was the top individual following finals, as she topped a full contingent of Mountaineer medalists. West Virginia's Michael Bamsey placed second overall and Garrett Spurgeon was the third best shooter. Spurgeon was also named the NCAA Championship's Top Overall Performer.
Sherry's 596 was the highest shot total of any Nanook, qualifying him for finals. Mats Eriksson and Ryan Anderson were Alaska's next best shooters, as they each scored 592 points. Lorelie Stanfield and Sagen Maddalena rounded out the Nanooks, with respective shot totals of 589 and 588.
Said Jordan on hosting the Championships for the second time, "I love hosting and seeing everything come all together. I think we re-wrote how the Rifle Championships will be done, again. The gym looked amazing and the Fanfest on Friday was great and I think everything went really well."
All-in-all, it was a successful Championships for the host Nanooks, however, as they earned runners-up trophies in the air rifle and overall while they claimed a national championship in the smallbore portion. Furthermore, individuals Anderson and Eriksson were honored by the NCAA as Anderson was the individual runner-up in the smallbore finals and Eriksson won the Elite 89 Award for the second consecutive year.
The Elite 89 Award is presented to the individual with the highest cumulative grade-point average of all participants at the Championships. Eriksson claimed that title with an impressive 3.98 GPA as a Business Administration major.
