Nanooks shoot season high, top Miners 4664-4467
November 6, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
The No. 7 Alaska Nanooks combined to fire their season high as they defeated the visiting No. 20 University of Texas El Paso Miners, 4664-4467, on Saturday at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range.
The Nanooks had the upperhand in air rifle, besting the visiting Miners, 2351-2263. They posted a 109-point victory in smallbore, outgunning UTEP 2313-2204.
Sophomore Mats Eriksson and junior Michael Liuzza tied for the scoring crown in both events, each putting up a 579 in smallbore and a match-high 590 in air rifle. Liuzza, who was suffering back spasms earlier in the week, wasn't in the starting line up so his individual score wasn't counted in the team's overall score.
Alaska's other four starting shooters included rookie Tim Sherry (589, 3rd), sophomore Ryan Anderson (588, 4th), senior Cole Bures (584, 6th) and freshman Soren Butler(579, 9th).
Not counting for the aggregate score but participating in the match were junior Anna Hjelmevoll, who put up the fifth highest score on the day with a 587, and rookies Keanu Paikai (580, 8th), Lorelie Stanfield (572, 11th) and Jaimie Barnes (571, 13th).
UTEP's top air gun score of 583 came from Jennifer Armendariz (7th). Their scoring team was rounded out by Korina Rodriquez (576, 10th), Hannah Muegge (572, 12th) and Areli Oros (532, 14th).
For smallbore, Anderson's 578 was the third best total of the day and Butler (577, 4th) and Bures (576, 5th) rounded out the top five.
Armendariz took 6th with a 574, edging Sherry by one point (573, 7th). Rodriguez shot the 8th-best total in the three-posiition event with a 568 and Paikai (564, 9th), Stanfield (561, 10th), Muegge (558, 11th), Barnes (550, 12th) and Oros (504, 13th) completed the competitve field.
Following her solid air rifle performance, Hjelmevoll was feeling too ill to go on and opted to leave mid-match to go see the doctor.
The Nanooks smallbore scoring team was composed of Eriksson, Anderson, Liuzza, Butler and Bures.
Alaska takes a two week break from competition and begins preparing for their next home matches, Nov. 17-18, when No. 1 ranked West Virginia comes to Fairbanks for a pair of NCAA matches.