FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks rifle team defeated the University of Texas at El Paso today, Sept. 28 in their first match of their season. Beginning at 8 a.m. with relay one of the smallbore portion of the match, the Nanooks were off and running.
Kellen McAferty led the way for the 'Nooks with a total score of 585, the top for Alaska shooters in smallbore. Behind McAfterty for the Nanooks was transfer-student,
Andrew Pham who finished with a score of 572.
Amy Gentry followed close behind with a 571, as did
Grace Nelson. Rounding out the smallbore scoring for the Nanooks was
Jessica Boyce with a 569.
The Miners of UTEP had only one shooter break 570 in the smallbore competition as Morgahn Warner led her team with a 576. Following behind Warner was Amoret McCartney, 566, Mara Rouse, 561, Samantha Miller, 556, and finally Jennifer Windle who shot a 541.
Head coach
Layne Lewis liked what he saw from his team following their first match of the 2019-20 season, "Today's match went well. It was exciting to see all the new members of the team shoot today; bringing in four new shooters is a lot for such a small team. This was our first match of the season, which was a couple weeks earlier than it has been in the past, and it was great to come together and shoot this well. It is always fun to host UTEP, we shoot with them more than any other team in our conference. We are excited to shoot again tomorrow at TVSA to build off of what we learned today and continue to build. Our sights are set high for this season."
In the air rifle portion of the match, the Nanooks saw some great success out of
Haley Castillo and
Jessica Boyce. They both were able to crack the 590 mark as Castillo claimed the high on the day with a 595 and Boyce ended just behind with a 592. UTEP saw their best scores of the day in air rifle as Jonna Warnken shot a 585 and Rouse shot a 580.
The top shooter of the day went to McAfterty with
Jessica Boyce coming right behind him. Alaska also claimed the 1-6 places and had seven of the top ten shooters on the day. The Nanooks will look to build off of this tomorrow as they take on UTEP one more time beginning at 8 a.m. over at the Tanana Valley Sportsman Association.
Live stats will again be available on results.megalink.no.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks rifle team, follow @NanooksRifle on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Rifle team page on Facebook.
