Heading up north to the frozen tundra of Alaska, the No. 12-ranked Zips faced off against No. 8-ranked University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) and No. 17 University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). If you’re counting, that’s three schools that start with UA, making my job a little more challenging.
On Saturday, Nov. 7, all three schools faced off at UAF, and on Sunday the Zips and UAB moved to a different range, the Tanana Valley Sportsmen’s Association (TVSA). The temperatures may have been cold, but you wouldn’t know it by watching the red-hot Zips. The two matches fired over the weekend produced Akron’s highest two scores of the season. The first match at UAF set a new school record of 4717 for the aggregate score, along with a new school record of 2346 in smallbore. This put Akron slightly behind UAF’s 4734 while edging ahead of UAB’s 4616.
In smallbore, Akron sophomore Kathleen Moran owned the weekend by breaking into the elite 590s in both matches. Not to be overlooked, however, was the highest smallbore score of the weekend, a 591, delivered by none other than freshman hotshot Maddie Allen. Coming in as a freshman and already posting Olympic-level scores is quite impressive. With the rest of the squad firmly in the 580s, the smallbore scores this weekend are definitely heading in the right direction.
Following smallbore, the air rifle competition continued at amazing levels. With a plethora of Zips in the 590s, bubbling to the top was the now-familiar name of Maddie Allen. She finished third overall on day one with her 596 and took home the top gun award on day two with an outstanding 597. Being good teammates, Moran, Kimball, McClimans and Heschel also jumped into the 590s with some in the upper 590s.
To put things in perspective, the bullseye on an air rifle target is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. These amazing athletes are hitting that period 56 or 57 times out of a possible 60.
UAF’s Marshall Schmidt claimed the top individual aggregate in Saturday’s three-way match with 1189-90X. On Sunday, UAB’s Meghan McLaughlin led the Blazers with a 1168-70X aggregate, good for fifth overall.
Akron vs. Alaska-Fairbanks, Akron vs. UAB Leaderboards
| Team Standings: Nov. 7 at Alaska-Fairbanks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Smallbore | Air Rifle | Aggregate |
| 1 | Alaska-Fairbanks | 2352 | 2382 | 4734-321X |
| 2 | Akron | 2346 | 2371 | 4717-311X |
| 3 | UAB | 2286 | 2330 | 4616-232X |
| Team Standings: Nov. 8 at Tanana Valley Sportsmen's Association | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Smallbore | Air Rifle | Aggregate |
| 1 | Akron | 2338 | 2375 | 4713-312X |
| 2 | UAB | 2307 | 2321 | 4628-234X |
See the full results of both matches at ncaarifle.org.
After a quick temperature adjustment, along with adapting to the four-hour time difference, the now No. 9-ranked Zips will face off against No. 10 Memphis for a conference match on Saturday, Nov. 14. Then on the way home, the Zips will swing by No. 17 Morehead State in Kentucky for the first-ever Monday rifle match. Both competitions will be livestreamed, with targets available at live.megalink.no. Be sure to account for the one-hour time difference at Memphis, with Morehead being back in the Eastern Time Zone.
Learn more about the Akron, Alaska-Fairbanks and UAB rifle teams.
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