Men's and Women's Rifle | 1/10/2017 8:25:00 PM
Results
MORGANTOWN, W.V. – In their opening match of the 2017 spring semester, the No. 7th-ranked Alaska Nanooks suffered a tough nonconference loss to the No. 2 West Virginia Mountaineers on Tuesday afternoon, falling 4,717-4,688 at the WVU Rifle Range. Redshirt-junior Sagen Maddalena and junior Luke Johnson tied for second place in the individual standings on the day, both registering an aggregate score of 1,180.
"West Virginia put on a great match today," interim head coach Layne Lewis said on Tuesday. "The team had a lot of fun and for our first match back after the long break, it went really well. Luke and Sagen tied as our top shooters of the match. We have a couple days off before our match with the Coast Guard in Pennsylvania, where we will continue to do some training to build on our progress on the road."
Despite the defeat, it was a record day for the Nanooks, who posted their best aggregate team score on the road of the 2016-17 season. The highlight of the day being Johnson's performance, which broke and reset his career personal-best aggregate and smallbore scores on Tuesday. Johnson's previous career-high aggregate score being a 1,172 which he set at UTEP on Feb. 18, 2016 improved to 1,180 today at West Virginia. Johnson's previous smallbore personal-best of 587 was reevaluated on Tuesday, as Johnson registered a 588, placing him second in the individual smallbore standings before the Marysville, Pennsylvania native posted an air rifle score of 592, which ranked him fourth in the individual air rifle standings.
Maddalena led all shooters in the air rifle portion, recording a 598, only one-point shy of her season-best 599. Maddalena placed fifth overall in the smallbore individual standings with a 582 to complete her aggregate score of 1,180.
West Virginia's Olympic Gold Medalist Ginny Thrasher led all shooters individually on Tuesday, collecting a 590 in smallbore and a 597 in air rifle to tally an aggregate score of 1,187.
Freshman Amy Gentry placed eighth overall tying her career personal-best aggregate score of 1,164, which she set Nov. 20 against NC State. Gentry shot a career-high 582 in smallbore before registering a 582 in air rifle.
Redshirt-senior co-captain Soren Butler was the only other Nanook to place in the top-ten individually, collecting an aggregate score of 1,163 from a 574 smallbore tally and a 589 air rifle score.
The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's rifle team will be back on the range on Saturday, Jan. 14, taking part in the Palmyra Invitational against the Coast Guard in Palmrya, Pennsylvania.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's rifle team, follow @NanooksRifle on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Rifle team page on Facebook.
