Smallbore Team Results | Smallbore Individual Results

CHARLESTON, S.C. – At the conclusion of day one, the Alaska Nanooks coed rifle team currently sits in sixth place in the team standings of the 2018 NCAA Rifle National Championships. The Nooks compiled a team score of 2312 in the smallbore discipline at the McAlister Field House on The Citadel campus on Friday afternoon.

The University of Kentucky won the team smallbore title with a score of 2345 and currently sits in first place heading into the air rifle event tomorrow. Kentucky is followed by five-time defending national champion West Virginia (2327), Texas Christian University (2326), Murray State (2324) and Air Force (2319) before the Nooks.

Redshirt-senior Sagen Maddalena placed third overall individually in the opening day of competition, registering a smallbore score of 586 for a team-best. Kentucky's Henrik Larsen (592) and Hanna Car (587) were the only other shooters to collect a better smallbore score than Maddalena in Friday's two relays.

Following Maddalena, senior Luke Johnson was the second-highest scoring Nanook with a score of 577 to place 29th overall, while junior JT Schnering tallied a 576 to rank 32nd overall. In his NCAA debut, sophomore Liam Eberhart shot a 573, while junior Robert Scott posted a 568.

The top-eight individuals with the highest smallbore scores advanced to the individual finals on Friday afternoon, including Maddalena. The finals start off with three, five-shot series in the kneeling position where the shooters have 3:20 to fire off their five shots. Following the three, five-shot intervals, Maddalena ranked sixth with a score of 148.1.

Following kneeling, the finalists then shoot another three, five-shot series in the prone position allowing the finalists 2:30 to shoot in each five-shot interval. Once again, Maddalena ranked sixth out of the eight finalists with a total score of 302.3.

After a nine minute changeover period to standing position, the finalists shot two, five-shot series with each interval lasting 4:20. Following the two, five-shot series, the bottom two finalists are eliminated, which unfortunately included Maddalena, who posted a score of 398.0, ranking her eighth.

West Virginia's Morgan Phillips won her second-straight smallbore individual title with a score of 459.4 in the finals.

The Nanooks will return to the range for the final day of competition tomorrow (Saturday, Mar. 10) with the air rifle discipline starting at 6am AKST. The overall team champions will be decided, as well as the team air rifle and individual air rifle titles.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks coed rifle team, follow @NanooksRifle on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Rifle team page on Facebook.