FAIRBANKS – The Alaska Nanooks team defeated the Air Force Academy on Sunday, Jan. 23 in their home-range to move to 11-0, 4-0 PRC on the season. The Nanooks beat the Falcons 4747-4707.
"Today's match was validation that the team can consistently perform at this level." stated head coach
Will Anti, "One of the hardest things to do in sport is to follow up a great day with another and today they succeeded."
In smallbore, the Nanooks shot a 2361, winning the discipline as Air Force shot a 2326. In air, the Nanooks shot an impressive 2386 while Air Force followed closely behind with a 2381.
Rylan Kissell won the aggregate standings, posting an 1189. Following him was Sara Karasova with an 1188. The Nanooks took third and fourth, rounding out their top-five finishers as
Kellen McAferty shot an 1186 and
Gavin Barnick took fourth with an 1184.
"There were many highlights today. Rylan had a strong match in both guns and was the aggregate leader. Karasova pushed him the whole day though, and with a personal best in air and aggregate she turned in her best performance of the season. She has been grinding so hard in the airgun and is really deserving of these results." added Anti.
Alaska took the top-five finishers in the smallbore standings with Kissell leading the way. He shot a 591, beating Karasova on X's as Karasova took second, also shooting a 591. McAferty claimed the third-place finish, shooting a 590 in the second relay of the day and
Gavin Barnick, the final scoring Nanook in smallbore, fired off a 589. Kissell continued his strong shooting into the air rifle discipline. A day off of his 600, Kissell shot a 598, taking the top-spot in the individual placement. Scott Rockett of Air Force took second with his own 598. Karasova took third with a 597, McAferty took fifth with a 596 and Barnick rounded out the Nanooks scoring in air with a 595 and sixth-place finish.
Final Coaches Thoughts
Kellen matched his aggregate personal best with an 1186. His smallbore, airgun and most importantly shooting IQ continue to improve in leaps and bounds. He's become a dependable airgun shooter which I know is something he's worked toward. Daniel had another solid smallbore match. He's going to break into the next tier of smallbore soon. He's got some really positive momentum in air which has us equally excited. Finally Jess capped off an impressive weekend with strong matches in both guns. She's on quite a roll. She's fired above 1170 in our last three matches and finished today's air match with a 299/300. We're really proud of the team's effort this weekend and are looking forward to getting back to training to prep for the postseason.
The Nanooks return to action on Feb. 5-6 when they head to the Air Force Academy for PRC Championships.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks rifle team, follow @NanooksRifle on Twitter or Instagram, or like the Alaska Nanooks Rifle team page on Facebook.
