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The Nebraska rifle team will head to Oxford, Miss., this weekend to participate in the eighth annual Great American Rifle Conference Championships. The Huskers will enter the match as favorites to win its first conference crown, riding the momentum of a strong showing at the NCAA qualifiers.
The championships, hosted by Ole Miss, will open Friday, Feb. 25, as some teams begin their smallbore shoots. The Huskers will arrive on Friday in time for the year-end banquet that night, at which time conference honors will be handed out. Nebraska will then shoot individual and team smallbore Saturday, while shooting air rifle Sunday.
Head Coach Launi Meili feels very confident that her team will perform well in its first-ever conference championship.
“I can still feel the momentum going forward with the girls,” Meili said. “We have set new, higher goals for the girls for the remainder of the season, and I really see us continuing to rise to the occasion and shooting up to these new goals.”
Kentucky won the 2004 GARC Championships with an aggregate score of 6,184. Army finished second (6,170), Xavier placed third (6,144) and Ole Miss finished fourth (6,035).
Huskers Qualify for NCAA Championships
After a strong showing at NCAA qualifiers Feb. 13, the Nebraska rifle team qualified for its second-consecutive NCAA Championships. The Huskers were one of six teams to qualify in both smallbore and air rifle, joining six-time defending champion Alaska-Fairbanks, Army, Jacksonville State, Kentucky and Navy. UTEP and Xavier qualified only in smallbore, while Memphis and Nevada qualified only in air rifle.
The University of Nevada-Reno and USA Shooting will host the championships, which will be held March 11-12 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Huskers’ appearance marks the fourth time in the program’s seven-year existence that the team has made it to the NCAA Championships.
In addition to participating in the team championships, three Huskers qualified to shoot for the individual championship. Sophomore Kristina Fehlings qualified in both disciplines as an individual, and junior Misty Chanek and freshman Andrea Franzen qualified in air rifle. Overall, 10 individuals qualified in air rifle and 12 individuals qualified in smallbore.
Individual and team competition in smallbore will be held Friday, March 11, with air rifle competitions held Saturday, March 12. The overall team champion will be determined by combining the smallbore and air rifle team totals for each school.
Last Action: Huskers Perform Well at NCAA Qualifiers
When last in action Feb. 13, Nebraska fired a season-high 4,693 in its NCAA qualifier match. The Huskers were led in smallbore by sophomore Kristina Fehlings, who fired a 591. She was closely followed by junior Misty Chanek (584) and freshmen Kirsten Weiss (582) and Kim Chrostowski (580). Nebraska finished with a 2,337 in the discipline.
Fehlings and freshman Andrea Franzen took top honors for the Huskers in air rifle, each firing a 593. Freshman Eva Richert shot a 588, and Chrostowski rounded out the field with a 582, giving the Huskers a team total 2,356. Chanek fired a 591 in the event as an individual.
Alaska-Fairbanks shot a 4,723 at the qualifier, providing the Nanooks with the head-to-head win over the Huskers. The Nanooks fired a 2,356 in smallbore and a 2,367 in air rifle.
The strong performance in the NCAA qualifiers made up for a disappointing performance the day before at the Collegiate Sectional. While Nebraska fired a 4,660 in the match, Head Coach Launi Meili felt that the team underachieved in the first day’s shoot.
“The first day in Alaska, we had some difficulties,” Meili said. “The scores weren’t bad, but the girls were tired and we had to fix some problems. The second day, they used that poor performance as momentum and they shot the goals that we have been setting all along.
“They knew that they could do it, and they did it. That it is a great accomplishment. We learned a lot that first day, and we came back and put that to work in the qualifiers. I am really proud of the girls.”