Alaska-Fairbanks Wins Fourth Straight NCAA Rifle Championship
Rifle for men and women is an NCAA championship sport. Nearly 50 colleges and universities around the country have rifle teams that are sponsored by school athletic departments. Approximately half of those schools offer athletic scholarships for rifle shooting.  The 2002 NCAA Rifle Championship took place at Murray State University in Kentucky in Mid-March. The University of Alaska at Fairbanks won its fourth consecutive NCAA rifle title in that championship. Only West Virginia has won more consecutive titles, winning six from 1988 to 1993.  The Alaska team, coached by David Johnson, fired a 6241 total in the combined smallbore and air rifle aggregate. Kentucky finished 32 points back in second place with a 6209. A total of ten schools qualified teams for the NCAA Championship in smallbore or air rifle. A maximum of eight teams were invited in each event. Six of those teams qualified both smallbore and air rifle teams and were eligible to compete for the overall championship. Team results were:		Matt Emmons, Alaska-Fairbanks junior from Browns Mills, New Jersey dominated the 2002 individual NCAA smallbore competitions by firing tournament record 1190 three-position totals in both the individual and team championships. He is show here firing his smallbore rifle in the standing position.

2002 NCAA individual rifle champions are Matt Emmons, an Alaska-Fairbanks junior from Browns Mills, New Jersey, in smallbore and Ryan Tanoue, a Nevada-Reno freshman from Honolulu, Hawaii in air rifle. Both Emmons and Tanoue won their individual titles on the first day of competition and then fired the highest individual scores again in the team match on the second day.  Emmons set an NCAA individual championship record with his 1190 smallbore total, bettering an 1185 score fired by Alaska’s Kelly Mansfield in 1999. Hannah Kerr of Xavier was second with 1179 and Kentucky’s Brad Wheeldon was third with 1175. Emmons fired another 1190 in the team competition, this time breaking an NCAA record of 1187 that was fired by Stefan Thynell of West Virginia in 1980.

Nevada-Reno freshman Ryan Tanoue from Honolulu, Hawaii won the 2002 NCAA air rifle championship with a 392 score. Tanoue also had the leading score in the team championship where he fired 395.

Emmons also won the NCAA smallbore rifle championship in 2001, making him the first shooter to win back-to-back NCAA titles in 14 years. In the air rifle championship, Tanoue and Emmons tied with 392 scores, but Tanoue won on the tie-breaker, which under NCAA rules is done by counting center shots. James Nash of Kentucky finished third with a 391. Tanoue returned on team match day to again fire the top air rifle score, a 395. He is a graduate of St. Louis High School in Honolulu, and won the National Junior Olympic Three-Position Sporter Class Championship in 2000 and the Precision Class Championship in 2001. At the championship closing awards ceremony, the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association named Emmons the “2002 Shooter of the Championship” and Alaska-Fairbanks coach David Johnson the “2002 College Rifle Coach of the Year.” The CRCA also presented “All-Academic Awards” to athletes who attained a 3.2 GPA or better. Open the NCAA Championship website at http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,0_716_0,00.html to obtain detailed information and individual scores from the 2002 NCAA Rifle Championship.