NCAA Qualifiers: The 'Last Frontier'

The Nebraska rifle team will shoot its final regular season matches this weekend when the team heads to Fairbanks, Alaska, to shoot its Collegiate Sectional and NCAA qualifier matches.

 

Saturday's shoot will count as the Huskers' Collegiate Sectional score. The Collegiate Sectional is a match that has to be shot in order to earn All-America honors. Matches will be shot around the country and scores are tabulated, a Collegiate Sectional national champion as well as a team champion is crowned.

 

Sunday's shoot will count as the team's NCAA qualifier score as well as serving as a head-to-head match with six-time defending national champion Alaska-Fairbanks.

 

Head Coach Launi Meili looks forward to the challenge the Nanooks bring and expects her squad to perform well in the qualifier.

 

"Qualifying for the NCAA Championships has been a team goal all year long," Meili said. "I feel like the team is really performing well right now and going up against a team the caliber of Alaska-Fairbanks will hopefully push our girls even harder. I really believe in going against the best. The only way you can improve is to see how you stack up against the best."

 

Meili Inducted Into International Shooter Hall of Fame

 

University of Nebraska Rifle Head Coach Launi Meili received one of the highest honors in shooting Jan. 29 when she was inducted into the International Shooting Hall of Fame. Meili was joined in this year’s class by former USA Shooting Director of Operations Colonel Joseph Berry.

 

Hall of Fame inductees are selected by the USA Shooting Board of Directors and the current International Shooting Hall of Fame members. Meili will receive a bronze plaque during the USA Shooting luncheon at the 2005 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. She will also be awarded an honorary life membership to USA Shooting.

 

Meili, who led Nebraska to a sixth-place finish at the 2004 NCAA Championships, is very honored to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

 

“The International Shooter Hall of Fame was started when I was training at the Olympic Training Center and the people who were first inducted were the top names in the sport,” Meili said. “It is hard to believe that I am now being inducted, but it is certainly a big honor for me. I want to continue to live up to that and work as hard as I can in the sport of shooting.”

 

Last Action: Huskers Outshoot Musketeers

 

When last in action Jan. 29, the Nebraska rifle team defeated Great American Rifle Conference foe Xavier. The Huskers dispatched the Musketeers 4,668-4,619, winning 2,324-2,317 in smallbore and 2,344-2,302 in air rifle.

 

Junior Misty Chanek set the pace for the Huskers in smallbore, shooting a match-high 585. Sophomore Kristina Fehlings took second in the event with a 584, followed by freshman Kirsten Weiss (581).

 

Freshman Andrea Franzen took top honors in air rifle, shooting a 592 in regulation and a 100 in the finals in her first NCAA match. Franzen arrived at Nebraska after spending her first semester in Sweden. Fehlings took second in the event (691 overall), followed by freshman Kim Chrostowski (684 overall).

 

Head Coach Launi Meili was pleased with the way her team performed.

 

"We shot one of our better team scores against Xavier and we really feel like we are headed in the right direction," Meili said. "Despite that, a couple of the girls did not shoot up to their full potential and we are looking to have everyone performing at their best in Alaska."

 

Looking Ahead

 

Following Sunday's NCAA qualifier, the Huskers will await the results of qualifiers from around the nation before learning if the team will advance to the NCAA Championships on March 11-12 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

 

Unlike years past, Nebraska will have a match between the NCAA qualifiers and the NCAA Championships, when the team shoots in the Great American Rifle Conference Championships on Feb. 26-27 in Oxford, Miss.Kentucky was the 2004 Great American Rifle Conference champion.