Former Nanooks earn spots on USA Shooting team headed to Beijing

Submitted by Jamie Schanback
Phone: 907-474-6807
05/23/08

Two former Alaska Nanook rifle team members have punched their tickets to Beijing, China, where they will represent the United States at the XXIX Olympic Games Aug. 8-24.

Jamie Beyerle (Lebanon, Pa.), who shot for Alaska from 2002-2006, finished first in the Women’s 3-Position Smallbore Rifle event at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Thursday at Fort Benning, Georgia, earning her a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.

Beyerle won the match by a substantial margin, finishing with a total score of 1959.0 to clinch her first ever Olympic team berth.

"I have been waiting a long time for this," said Beyerle. "This is what I have been training for the past six years and it feels great. My goal was to come in and shoot world-class scores and I think I accomplished that."

She will join fellow Nanook alumnus and 2004 Olympian Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.) on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team. Emmons has already secured two Olympic team spots, both in 3-Position Rifle and Prone Rifle. Emmons shot for the Blue and Gold from 1999-2003 and captured his first Olympic gold medal in men’s prone during the 2004 games in Athens, Greece.

The Alaska-connected duo has had their share of success in their shooting careers, including being Olympic hopefuls since nabbing quotas for the U.S. at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Shooting Championships in the summer of 2006. Beyerle was a six-time All-American, while Emmons earned All-American honors eight times. Both were members of Nanook teams that captured six of the program’s 10 NCAA Championship crowns (2000-03, 2005-06).

Prior to this year’s Olympic Trials, Emmons (2004) and Melissa Mulloy-Mecozzi (2000) were the only previous Alaska shooters to make an Olympic Team. Three of Alaska’s coaches have shared the honor, however, including Glen Dubis (1984, 1988, 1996, 2000), Dave Johnson (1992), and current head coach and 2004 Paralympic silver medalist, Dan Jordan.

Beyerle and Emmons will both shoot for gold beginning on Saturday, Aug. 9 at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall.