1999-2000 Season in Review

The 1999-2000 season marked a year of many firsts for the Husker rifle team. It marked the first recruiting class for Coach Karen Anthony and it was also the first time a Husker squad qualified for postseason competition.

Nebraska's newest sport wasted little time making its presence known on the national scene by qualifying for the NCAA Championships in only its second year as a varsity sport.

The Huskers, one of the youngest teams in the nation with two sophomores and three freshmen on the roster, were also one of the few all-female teams competing in rifle.

Nebraska opened its season in mid-October at a triangular with NCAA qualifiers Norwich, and host school Navy. The Huskers claimed the overall match title and followed with victories over King's College and Missouri-Kansas City. Leading the Huskers in the first three matches was freshman Nicole Allaire, who captured five individual titles. The only blemish on an otherwise perfect record was a second-place finish in the air rifle in the Huskers? first match of the season.

Nebraska?s next two competitions tested the Huskers' ability to fire under pressure, as they greeted November with the Walsh Invitational, the largest indoor rifle match in the nation, and followed the next day with the Kentucky Invitational, which featured 26 teams. Competing against some of the top teams in the country at the Walsh Invitational, the Huskers faltered, firing season-low scores on their way to a ninth-place finish out of 21 teams. Although the team did not fare well, freshman Amanda Trujillo had a banner day, recording personal-best scores with both rifles. The Brush, Colo., native cracked the top 10 in both events, finishing fifth in air rifle (391) and ninth in smallbore (1,169).

The Huskers rebounded the next day, finishing fourth at Kentucky against many of the same teams that competed in the Walsh Invitational.

After a month off from competition, Nebraska hosted its first-ever match in early December, a quadrangular with Missouri-Kansas City, Texas Christian and Wyoming. Despite the fact the Huskers failed to break 6,000 points in the aggregate score for the first time all season, Anthony said she was excited to host the match and was pleased with how it went.

"Every time you shoot a match you get a lot of experience with shooting, so there's never a time, even if you don?t do as well as you?d like to, that you don?t gain positive things from the match," Anthony said.

After firing on only two weekends over a two month span at the end of 1999, Nebraska was busy in January, traveling to Colorado Springs to face defending national champion Alaska-Fairbanks, Wyoming and Air Force in back-to-back matches.

The Nanooks ran away with the match recording a total score of 6,250, which topped runner-up Air Force by more than 150 points and bettered the Huskers' score by nearly 200. Even though the Huskers suffered their largest defeat of the season, they were still able to take something from the match having competed against the best team in the country.

"Our team did not shoot as well as they are capable of shooting," Anthony said. "However, it's still a really good match to be able to shoot. It's a good experience to know what the competition is and to be able to shoot shoulder to shoulder with them."

Nebraska faced the same three teams the following day, but when junior Rachel Spiry fell ill and was unable to compete, the Huskers' lost their fourth smallbore shooter and were unable to field the required four-member team. Nebraska did field an air rifle team and for the second day in a row, finished second to Alaska-Fairbanks, this time however, by only 27 points compared to 34 the previous day.

Nebraska bid farewell to January with another big match, the Roger Withrow Invitational. Despite recording the lowest team totals of 1999-2000 in the air rifle, the Huskers recorded their second-highest team score, tallying a combined score of 6,102 points to finish third. Spiry, competing as an individual, fired a career-high 383 in the air rifle. Alaska-Fairbanks again blew away the field, firing an astounding 6,275, while host Murray State finished second with 6,140.

The Huskers spent the next two weeks preparing for the Collegiate Sectional Match, a qualifying competition for the NCAA Championships. The scores from sectional matches held across the nation are compiled by the NCAA, which then invites a maximum of eight teams and 48 individuals, in both the air rifle and smallbore, to compete at nationals.

The Huskers made a strong argument for an invitation, firing a season-high score of 6,123. Nebraska recorded its best scores of the season in both the air rifle (1,530) and smallbore (4,593). Although Spiry was not a part of the team score, she shot a career-high air rifle score of 383.

On the day, Allaire was the high shooter in smallbore with 1,170. She tied a range record in the standing position shooting a 393 and hitting 24 centers on 40 shots.

"I'm very pleased with how the team shot particularly in the smallbore rifle," she said. "It's extremely difficult to shoot your best scores with the match pressure of knowing this one performance determines the opportunity to compete at the NCAA Championships."

Instead of sitting around waiting to see whether they qualified for nationals, the Huskers headed to Ohio State the next day for a shoulder-to-shoulder match with the Buckeyes. With the pressure off, Nebraska rewrote the record books, firing school-record scores with both rifles.

Several Huskers recorded career highs on the day, including Allaire, whose 396 in the air rifle led all shooters. Junior Terim Richards also recorded a personal best, firing a 395 to take second.

In the smallbore, Allaire finished with a season-high total of 1,180 points on the strength of a personal-best score of 392 in the kneeling position. Allaire wasn't the only Husker to record a personal best in the event. Spiry also used a personal-best score in the kneeling position (385) to finish in third place with 1,145 points, bettering her previous high by 16.

Two weeks later, Nebraska was informed that it was one of seven teams invited to the NCAA Championships in Lexington, Va., and one of only five teams to compete with both rifles. Three members of the team also qualified for the individual competition - Allaire qualified with both rifles, while Richards would represent Nebraska in the air rifle and Trujillo would compete in the smallbore.

Despite competing in her first NCAA Championships, Allaire seemed almost immune to the pressure and bettered her career-high smallbore score by three points, firing a 1,183 to win the title. Trujillo finished seventh with a 1,163. In the air rifle, Richards fired a 391 to finish fifth, while Allaire recorded a 383.

In the team competition, Nebraska was on top of its game, finishing second in air rifle to eventual champion Alaska-Fairbanks, and fourth in smallbore for an overall third-place finish.

In the smallbore, the Nanooks recorded an unheard of total of 4,707, setting a new NCAA record and claiming their second consecutive title. Husker freshman Victoria Ridge saved her best for last as the Langhorne, Pa., native fired a season-high score of 1,139, to help Nebraska capture fourth place.

Nebraska also captured several postseason honors. Allaire, who led the Huskers in nearly every match last season, became the first Husker named a National Rifle Association First-Team All-American, claiming the honor in both air and smallbore rifles. Trujillo was also recognized by the NRA, earning second-team honors with both rifles.

Not to be left out, Anthony received an award of her own when the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association honored her as the Coach of the Year.