Jordan releases rifle's 2013-14 match schedule
June 7, 2013
Chris Brooks
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2013-14 Schedule
Head coach Dan Jordan has announced the Alaska Nanooks rifle program's 2013-14 season schedule, which is highlighted by matches against last year's top-three teams, an air rifle invitational and the first-ever Patriot Rifle Conference Championship.
The year kicks off Sept. 28-29 when the 10-time national champion Nanooks host an alumni match as former shooters will return to Fairbanks to take on the current student-athletes. In addition, there will also be a fun match with competitions and a chance for fans to get involved as well.
“The alumni match should be fun,” Jordan said. “There are still quite a few former athletes who are currently shooting on the national and international stage. We're going to try to get as many back as we can to shoot the match and we'll also do a fun match for the non-active shooters to give everyone an opportunity to shoot and have fun.”
Over the weekend of Oct. 11-13, Alaska will welcome in Mississippi and North Carolina State. The two visitors will face each other on Oct. 11 and the Nanooks will take on both N.C. State and Ole Miss over the ensuing two days. Following a pair of road matches at Jacksonville State and Texas Christian, the 'Nooks host two matches against the defending national runner-ups, Kentucky, Nov. 23-24.
Alaska kicks off 2014 on Jan. 9 at the Air Force Academy and then head to Ohio for the Camp Perry Air Gun Match on Jan. 11-12, which will allow all shooters to focus solely on air rifle, which Jordan says is an important aspect for aspiring national champions.
“Periodically, depending how our schedule looks, we shoot various matches around invitational events,” Jordan said. “The Camp Perry match is an all-air rifle match and a lot of other teams go there. It's a good opportunity to work on air gun which is one of the keys to winning the NCAA Championship.”
The Nanooks come back to Fairbanks the week after to host Ohio State and The Citadel on Jan. 18-20. Alaska and OSU hit the range on day one, followed by a neutral-site match-up between the visitors. The weekend rounds out with the Alaska shooting versus The Citadel.
February marks the beginning of championship season as the Nanooks head to Morgantown, W.V., to battle the 2013 NCAA champions, West Virginia, which has won a record 15 team titles. On Feb. 8-9, Alaska will compete in the first-ever PRC Championship, which will be hosted by Ohio State in Columbus.
Less than two weeks later, following a neutral match on Feb. 20 featuring Texas-El Paso and Nevada at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range, those two programs, along with Alaska, will shoot in the NCAA Qualifier on Feb. 22-23. The season concludes March 14-15 in Murray, Kent., at the 2014 NCAA Rifle Championship.
“We will be coming in with a lot of experience this year,” Jordan said. “The freshmen that were shooting strongly last year but weren't quite up to that level have been shooting strong this summer. We're going to have an extremely deep team and very strong, so we should do well.”