COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Alaska Nanooks rifle team completed day one of the NCAA Rifle Championships with a 2326 score in the smallbore discipline. After completing the team portion of the day, the Nanooks find themselves in fifth place. 
 
The team shooting kicked-off at 5:30 a.m. AKT. Rylan Kissell led the way for the Nanooks, shooting a 587. He shot a 195 in kneeling and a 196 in both the prone and standing shots. Kellen McAferty came in second for the 'Nooks, shooting a 581. He ended smallbore with a 193 in kneeling, a 198 in prone and a 190 in standing. Daniel Enger was the third top-finisher for Alaska, shooting a 580. Enger posted a 193 in kneeling, a 197, including a 100 in his first 10 shots, in prone, and a 190 in standing. 
 
The final two finishers for the Nanooks were Liam Eberhart and Jessica Boyce. Eberhart posted a 578. In kneeling, the senior posted a 191. In prone, he shot a 194 and finally in standing he shot a 193. Boyce checked-in with a 564. She shot a 187 in kneeling before posting a 196 in prone. Boyce ended the day with a 181 in standing. 
 
Head coach Will Anti weighed in on how the overall day went for Alaska, "It was a decent performance from the team all around. Certainly, it was a new environment and there was a lot of learning. There were highlights from the day, we shot good standing, had our moment in kneeling but struggled a bit in prone. There were easy points to be gained, which can be nice moving forward knowing we didn't shoot our best smallbore performance and still will be top-five in the nation. Going forward we're excited about that. I think everyone definitely took something away from the match that they can use tomorrow going into air rifle."
 
The Nanooks return to the Ohio State campus and Converse Hall on Saturday, March 13, to shoot as a team in the air rifle discipline. When asked about what he looked forward to on air rifle day, coach Anti responded with, "Tomorrow, I think it'll be nice to see what they took from today's match [smallbore] that they can use to perform even better in air rifle. I think the nerves will be a little less, they'll be adjusted to the environment and stage and they'll be able to shoot a little more freely. We're definitely in the chase-team situation and that frees you up a little bit as well."
 
Before the Nanooks return for the team shooting, they will be back at the Converse Hall tonight, March 12 at 5:00 p.m. EST/1:00 p.m. AKT rooting on freshman, Rylan Kissell. Kissell qualified for the smallbore individual finals with his 587, winning a tiebreaker of total X's to move forward.
 
Full results and live video can be found at NCAA.com.
 
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks rifle team, follow @NanooksRifle on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks Rifle team page on Facebook.