No. 6 Huskers Look to Bounce Back Against No. 4 Nanooks in Top-10 Matchup

The No. 6 Nebraska Rifle team (4-2) will travel to Fairbanks, Alaska this weekend to face the No. 4 Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks. Saturday's match will start at noon central and will be at the Tanana Valley Sportsmans Association. Sunday's match will start at 11 a.m. central and will be held at the E.F. Horton Rifle Range in the Patty Center at Alaska-Fairbanks.

Fans can follow along with live results at https://results.megalink.no/#!/. 

The Huskers are coming off of their first losses of the season to No. 11 Ohio State with a score of 4,699-4,708 and No. 2 TCU with a score of 4,699-4,737 on Oct. 29. 

"The team has had a nice weekend off to refuel for the last back-to-back weekend in Alaska," said Head Coach Mindy Miles. "Alaska will hold the PRC (Patriot Rifle Conference) Championships this season, so the team will get some experience on the range. Traveling to Alaska gives us the opportunity to shoot at two locations. There is a local club that will host our first match, and the second match will be held at UAF's Patty Center. The travel will be a challenge for the team, but it'll give them a taste of what is to come for PRCs."

Despite the losses, Nebraska broke the school air rifle team score record with a mark of 2,379. The previous record of 2,376 was set in the 2017 GARC Conference Championships. 

With the air rifle record, the Huskers have now broken all three team score records this season. The new aggregate record is 4,717, the new smallbore record is 2,345 and the new air rifle record is 2,379.

The Nanooks are 4-0 on the season, and they average an aggregate of 4,743. They have wins over No. 11 Ohio State and No. 19 The Citadel. They placed third at The Fall Classic – No. 2 TCU took first and No. 3 West Virginia took second.

Nebraska is 3-34 all-time against Alaska. Most recently, the two met last season in the Patriot Rifle Conference Championships. The Nanooks placed first with a score of 4,572, while the Huskers placed fifth with a score of 4,670.

In Nebraska's last matches against Ohio State and TCU, Junior All-American Cecelia Ossi placed fifth overall with a score of 1,181. 

In the air rifle, Ossi was fourth (595) and freshman Vittoria Watts was fifth (595). Junior All-American Madelynn Erickson shot a personal best at 595, and sophomore Mackenzie Strauch shot her personal best with a 592. 

In the smallbore, Ossi finished in fifth with a score of 586. Strauch also shot her personal best in the smallbore with a 580.

Following the matches with Alaska-Fairbanks, the Huskers will host unranked UTEP on Nov. 20 to close out the fall portion of their season.