News release from Wolf Pack Athletics
The University of Nevada rifle team is headed to El Paso, Texas, Saturday, Oct. 3 to take on UTEP. The match will be the first of seven meetings against the Miners this season, one of the matches is the NCAA Championship qualifier.
“We are prepared. This is the first match in our qualification series for the National Championship. It is an opportunity to show what we can do,” said Nevada head coach Fred Harvey.
Finishing seventh at the 2009 NCAA championships, the University of Nevada’s rifle team has high hopes for this season. In the 2009 season, the team started with taking second place at the Horned Frog Invite in Fort Worth Texas. They then went on to win the next two matches against Nebraska and UTEP and ended the season 3-3.
This year’s captain Dempster Christenson lead the Pack last season in small bore with a score of 585. Christenson also tied now graduated Andrew Hickey in air rifle with Nevada’s high score of 594 against Nebraska last season.
Going on Harvey’s 15th year coaching at Nevada, he thinks his team will do very well.
“I expect them all to perform well. Dempster, Leah and Jessica should do very well” Harvey said. Dempster Christenson, Leah Taboada and Jessica Klatt are this year’s team captains. All of which scored very high last year, and will play key roles this season after a successful 2008-09 season.
There are many new members this year. Lots of freshman were recruited and the team is very excited to have them.
“The freshmen this year are awesome, they all have a lot of talent that could take us all the way,” said senior Alexandra Johnson.
Pack freshmen Teila Irwin, Clif Little, Carmen Luke, Michio Koide, Danielle Poteete and Samanta Stein are all new this year and are supposed to have a very positive impact this season.
“I think we’ll get UTEP this year for sure because everyone has been doing well at practices. Much more so than the last three years” said Johnson.
The Nevada Wolf Pack will open its home season against UTEP on Oct. 10. They also will be taking on the Air Force three times, as well as Alaska-Fairbanks.
