PALMYRA, Penn. -- The No. 5-ranked Alaska Nanooks rifle team returns to action this weekend, as they'll partake in a pair of meets with the 2016 Palmyra Invitational this Sunday before taking on the defending NCAA Champion, and No. 1-ranked, West Virginia, on the road on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
The Nooks open the two-meet, four-day road trip on Sunday in Palmyra, Pennsylvania for the Palmyra Invitational. The No. 5-ranked team in the country will get to shoot one week before the rest of the teams that are competing in the Invitational, as they take the range at 5 a.m. AKT with the 50m air rifle. The Nooks will also be shooting the smallbore at 8 a.m. AKT on Sunday.
After Sunday's meet, the Nanooks will face one of their biggest challenges of the 2015-16 regular season, by taking on the defending NCAA Champion, No. 1-ranked West Virginia, in Morgantown on Tuesday. The Mountaineers spoiled the Nooks hopes of their 11th NCAA National Championship last year in Fairbanks, as they scored a come-from-behind 4,702-4,700 victory at the 2015 NCAA Championship.
It has been a while since the Nanooks have taken the range, as their last meet came back on Nov. 8, when they lost at No. 5 Kentucky, 4,702-4,686. On that day, redshirt sophomore Sagen Maddalena collected a first-place finish in 50m air rifle by shooting a 598 in the event. It was the second-straight day that Maddalena had won the event, as she also collected a first-place finish at the NCAA Championship Rehearsal meet in Akron, Ohio the previous day. She also posted a 598 on the range that day, as the team finished fourth in the event.
Maddalena recently made headlines this week, as she won the silver medal in the air rifle at the Swedish Grand Prix in Sweden. The sharpshooter barely missed out on the gold medal, as she finished 0.2 points behind the winning score of 207.6.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks rifle team, follow @NanooksRifle on Twitter, or like Alaska Nanooks Rifle on Facebook.
