Ninth national title for Nanook shooters

Submitted by Tori Tragis
Phone: (907) 474-6438
03/10/07

Fairbanks, Alaska--With the hometown crowd solidly behind them, the Alaska Nanooks rifle team posted a convincing 18-point win over second-place finisher Army to win the 2007 NCAA National Rifle Championship at the Patty Center Gymnasium. The defending champion Nanooks notched a ninth title victory Saturday by outshooting the rest of the country in front a record crowd for collegiate rifle.

The Nanooks won the national title with a team aggregate score of 4,662, which combined the first day’s smallbore results with the second day’s air rifle scores. Army’s smallbore (2,307) and air rifle (2,337) put them second with 4,644. Jacksonville State rounded out the top three with a smallbore score of 2,291 and air rifle 2,348 for an aggregate 4,639.

Prior to this season, Alaska won the rifle championship in 1994, 1999-2004 and 2006.

While acknowledging the limited individual success of some of the Nanook shooters, second-year coach Dan Jordan was pleased with their overall solid performance.

"There was no single standout on the team this match; they all shot strong,"? Jordan said after the awards ceremony, which was attended by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "The other teams couldn’t put four people together like that. In both guns, all four shot good scores for us. They truly won as a team."

Nanook senior Matthias Dierolf (Uttenhofen, Germany) gave himself a special present for his 24th birthday during Saturday’s match with a second place showing in air rifle. In an extremely tight match, Dierolf’s 691.4 was just under the winning score of 692.2 from Jacksonville State’s Michael Dickinson (Ozark, Ala.) and only two-tenths of a point ahead of Army’s Christopher Abalo (Glendora, Calif.).

Jordan laughed when recalling the extrovert antics of Dierolf, who played to the appreciative crowd before and after the finals competition.

"Matthias feeds off of the crowd," he said. "He likes to impress people and show off his talent. This was the stage to do it on. He shot a decent final and was right there in the end. You can’t ask for much more."

Alaska senior Christian Lejon (Umea, Sweden) finished fifth with 689.3. Freshman Patrik Sartz (Stora Sundby, Sweden) missed making the final by one point with a 587, while Matt Rawlings (Wharton, Texas) was right behind with an unexpectedly low-key day of 586. Six shooters registered the same score as Rawlings but a series of tiebreakers put him in 16th place. Individual qualifier Becky Hershberger (Bedford, Penn.) finished 25th with a 582.

The trophies’ polish gleamed a little more brightly with the announcement that six Nanook team members were named All-Americans. Dierolf, Lejon, Rawlings and Sartz earned first-team honors in air rifle, while Hershberger got the nod for second-team honors. On the smallbore side, the senior trio of Dierolf, Lejon and Rawlings were first-teamers with freshmen Sartz and Jace Bures (Odell, Neb.) on the second unit.

"Our individual qualifiers shot well, too, and got good experience being here for the first time," Jordan said. "They’ll be ready to step up and do it next year."

More than 900 people bought tickets to view the 2007 championship, the first NCAA championships hosted by UAF. Jordan was impressed with the turnout.

"It’s huge with the exposure and community support," he said. "We always travel and go Outside to do this match and there are usually not that many spectators. To have it here at home and see the support the program has is a special feeling. I’ll always remember this championship."

CONTACT: Sports information assistant Barry Piser, (907) 474-6805 or barry.piser@uaf.edu, or Tori Tragis, tori.tragis@uaf.edu.