USU’s ROTC team places fourth in Ranger Challenge
Months of blood, sweat and tears culminated in one weekend of physical hell.
Hooah!
The Utah State University Army ROTC Ranger Challenge team traveled to Fort Hunter-Liggett, Calif. on Nov. 14 to compete in the ROTC Ranger Challenge. The Aggies took fourth place overall at the competition of 23 western schools. BYU took home first-place
honors.
The event came as the culmination of three months of hard work and training.
“The training was intense,” said Cameron White, a member of the team. “We started well before school started.”
White said the team had many days of strenuous pushups and long runs on top of specialized training for the individual events.
“When school started, we trained every day for a couple of months,” White said.
The training paid off for the squad, coming out of nowhere as a first-year team at the competition and placing fourth overall, including a first-place finish in the one-rope-bridge event.
“We were more than physically prepared, but being our first year there is no education like first-hand experience,” said team captain Brian Slade. “The experience of getting in the actual events that we were actually able to perform, it’ll help to raise the bar in the years to come.”
Slade said the benefit of having finally competed in the challenge will benefit USU teams in future years, as they now have the experience in events like the obstacle course and land navigation, which are very difficult to train for in Logan.
“The only things that we lacked on were things we had no way to practice for,” Slade said.
The Aggies tied with Northern Arizona University for seventh place on the obstacle course, and struggled to keep up with a nearly perfect BYU squad in the land navigation portion of the competition.
The team’s first-place finish in the one-rope bridge was no small feat however. It came about after many hours of training, Slade said.
“I’d say the highlight of the competition was taking first on the rope bridge,” he said. “There is a lot of prestige in taking that event, it’s the hardest, most technical and competitive event.”
In the rope bridge competition, each team must tie a rope between two poles and transport each member of the squad across the rope by way of a carabineer. The team completes the task two times, and an average of the two times creates a score for the event.
The Aggie’s average of 1:26.5 was good enough for a half-second edge over Southern Utah University. After hearing their time, the team exploded in
celebration.
“I didn’t realize how much we came to win, even though it was our first year,” said Scott Sparrow. “We made a really good showing and we came to win, and won the rope bridge.”
Aside from the team honor of first place on the rope bridge event, team member Jackson Lee was awarded with the top overall score in the Army physical fitness test (APFT). Lee scored an amazing 423 in the test after completing 157 pushups in two minutes and 115 sit-ups in the same time frame.
Lee’s score was nearly 50 points ahead of second place. After completing 157 pushups, Lee fell to the ground and curled up, requiring a teammate to help him reach his feet.
“Ow,” Lee said. “I just kept thinking ‘look up, keep your head up.'”
While Lee was fatigued immediately after completing the APFT, the entire team found themselves physically depleted after the final event of the competition, a 10 kilometer ruck march.
In the ruck march, nine members of the team had to carry nearly 40 pounds of equipment each along the course, much of which was on a steep uphill incline.
The Aggies finished the ruck march in fifth place with a time of 1:06:45. Many teams crossed the finish line only to have some of their runners requiring medical attention. Numerous runners were fed fluids intravenously after completing the march. No one on the USU team required such attention after the extremely physical event.
Through all the pain that team members suffered on the run, the team concept remained paramount in everyone’s mind.
“While I was running, I really don’t know how my legs kept moving; all I was thinking about the whole time was not slowing the team down,” said Justin Card, a member of the team.
In the end, the team did not leave with the biggest trophies, but came home with the experience and preparation to win the event next year.
“It’s kind of bittersweet, we worked so hard, and the first three teams were within two points of each other,” Sparrow said. “To lose that close with a few technicalities – if a few things would have shifted in our favor, we would have won.”
Slade said the team members gave it their all, and then some.
“I was very proud of everyone,” he said. “I couldn’t ask anything more from them.”
The team also included Jeff Rhees, Cliff Plowman, Shawn Harris, Greg Hinton and Pat Magill. They were coached by Maj. Steven Curtis and Sgt. Scott Womack.
“Next year we’ll have a better idea of what we’re up against,” Card said. “We’re taking the
trophy.”
-str@cc.usu.edu
USU Army ROTC member Cameron White walks by the desk after competing in one of the events.
Team members Latimer Smith and Greg Hinton climb over the top of the cargo net portion of the obstacle course.
USU team members high step through the first obstacle “the horizontal ladder of Hell.”
A cadet from BYU crosses the finish line during the two mile run portion of the physical fitness test. (Photos by Tyler Riggs)