FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Nanooks are poised to reclaim the NCAA Rifle Championship they lost last year.

That said, after winning Friday’s smallbore crown in Fort Worth, Texas, the Nanooks will need to shoot accurately in today’s air gun competition to secure the program’s 10th NCAA title in 12 years.

“We can’t get feeling comfortable,” Alaska head coach Dan Jordan said about a six-point lead on host Texas Christian University and a 12-point margin over defending champion West Virginia. “You still gotta win it.”

But Jordan likes where his squad is sitting after shooting four solid, but hardly spectacular, scores. Behind the senior trio of Patrik Sartz (583 of 600), Jaces Bures (579) and Billy Galligan (577), plus junior Cody Rutter (581), the Nanooks scored 2,320 points. The all-women’s TCU team recorded 2,314 while West Virginia — hurt by junior Andy Lamson’s 565 — mustered 2,308.

West Virginia, though, was in an even worse situation after smallbore last year. They were sixth of eight teams before storming back in air gun to stun the fourth-place Nanooks and the rest of the field.

“We know we can overcome this deficit,” WVU coach Jon Hammond said to the school’s sports information department. “This tournament is still wide open.”

While that might be true, Jordan said his team’s lead is significant, even though Texas Christian and West Virginia excel in air gun.

“You can pick up five or six (points in air gun), but to pick up 10 or 12, you gotta have some help there,” he said.

And the Nanooks — who will line up Rutter, Bures, Sartz and freshman Dustin Chesebro today — intend to keep their pursuers at bay as the competition moves to the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum where the Horned Frogs’ basketball team plays.

“Our four air gun shooters can compete with anybody,” Jordan said, adding that the third and fourth scorers might ultimately determine the outcome.

The Mountaineers wouldn’t be in their predicament had Lamson, who shot in the second of four relays, even come close to his average of nearly 577. Instead, he was tied for the third-lowest score among 38 shooters. They’d also be nearly even with Alaska had they selected sophomore Justin Pentz for their team instead of Lamson. Competing as an individual, Pentz fired a 576.

While the team competition went well for the Nanooks, Sartz and especially Rutter lamented what happened in the 10-shot competition to determine the individual national champion.

Sartz, with his 583, tied for the best score in the relays and advanced to the eight-shooter finals.

Rutter, however, lost a tiebreaker for eighth place and failed to advance despite a score that was just two points lower than Sartz’s.

“(Rutter) was pretty frustrated because he’s had such a strong year in smallbore,” Jordan said.

All eight shooters had a legitimate chance at the title, but TCU’s Sarah Scherer seized it with a 102 in the final. Sartz shot 99.7 to place runner-up.

“Senior year, he would have liked to have won, but he can’t be too disappointed when somebody shoots as well as (Scherer) did,” Jordan said.

Today’s air rifle competition runs from 6-10:15 a.m. AST, with the final set for 11 a.m. Targets can be viewed live at www.gofrogs.cstv.com/sports/c-rifle. That new feature was a hit — to a fault — on Thursday.

“We had enough hits on the Web site that we (temporarily) crashed the server,” Jordan said.

Swimming competition ends today

Swimming the 100-yard backstroke at the NCAA Division II Swimming Championships for the first time on Friday, Mariya Pavlovskaya of the Alaska Nanooks placed 23rd in Canton, Ohio.

Pavlovskaya, a junior from near Moscow, Russia, completed four lengths of the pool in 58.36 seconds, which was slightly faster than her qualification time of 58.48.

It wasn’t fast enough, however, to advance to the evening finals, as only the top 16 of 34 entrants did so. Pavlovskaya was 0.54 seconds too slow.

“This is an extreme sprint for her,” Alaska coach Scott Lemley said in an e-mail on Thursday.

Pavlovskaya, who has earned All-America honorable mention certificates for placing 11th in the 200 individual medley and ninth in the 400 IM at these championships, will conclude the meet today in the 200 backstroke.

Meanwhile, Felina Rosadiuk, a senior from Fairbanks, will race her best event today. She is seeded 13th of 74 swimmers in the 100 freestyle.

Rosadiuk placed a disappointing 32nd in the 50 freestyle on Wednesday in 24.24 seconds.

Lemley called that race a fluke, saying Rosadiuk “was ready to swim a mid-23 and jamming her shoulder at the start pretty much ended any chance of a sub-24 swim.”

Lemley said both of his swimmers will finish on a high note.

“I look forward to both Mariya and Felina swimming fast enough (this) morning to come back and swim again in the evening,” Lemley said.

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.