UAF stood on the podium with a third-place finish. Photo by Eric Engman
They weren’t able to successfully defend their national championship, but the Nanooks nonetheless experienced perfection Saturday at the NCAA Rifle Championships in Morgantown, West Virginia.
As a team, UAF stood on the podium with a third-place finish. It was the third straight top-three finish for the Nanooks, who collected their 11th national championship last season.
Perfection came from freshman Elijah Spencer of Boise, Idaho, who shot a perfect score of 600 in the air rifle preliminaries.
It’s just the second time a shooter has scored 600 at the NCAA championships — the first time came last year, when former Nanook shooter Rylan Kissell did it.
“Elijah was, of course, today’s highlight,” UAF coach Will Anti said in a press release from the school. “Shooting a 600 in any match is incredible. Shooting it at the NCAA Championships as a freshman is literally unheard of.
“We got a good chuckle because last week in practice she shot a six in airgun and basically went full panic; a week later, she shoots the second 600 ever in the NCAA Championship competition and was a vision of poised control.”
Behind Spencer’s performance, the Nanooks vaulted from fourth place to third place in the team standings. They trailed Kentucky by one point after Friday’s three-position smallbore competition and used a strong showing in air rifle to finish one point ahead of Kentucky in the final team standings.
Texas Christian won the team title with 4,732 points. West Virginia, the host school, was second with 4,729. UAF followed with 4,719 point and Kentucky was fourth with 4,718.
UAF’s top shooter was Sara Karasova, a junior from the Czech Republic. Karasova placed second in the aggregate individual standings with a score of 1,189, four points behind West Virginia aggregate champion Mary Tucker.
In smallbore, Karasova placed second in preliminaries with a score of 593 that included clean shooting in the prone position. In air rifle, she placed seventh in preliminaries with a 596.
“Sara got the match she deserved this week,” Anti said. “She led the team despite being quite under the weather. Nothing was going to stop her. She has been so focused this semester in her training and very intentional in practice.
“Her smallbore on day one was a statement score. It kept us afloat and in touching-distance of the podium.”