Our Northern Warfare Team was victorious at the 3rd Brigade Northern Warfare Challenge in Lacrosse, Wisconsin on Saturday, February 22nd. Known as "The Toughest Race in ROTC", it is a grueling physical and skill-based competition which traverses up and down the La Crosse bluffs, covering 16.2 miles of snowy trails and 2,242 feet of ascent. Our two teams consisted of 5 members each where each member was required to carry approximately 40 pounds of gear. A total of 30 teams competed, coming from 18 different schools across the Midwest. We defeated the other ROTC teams from the Midwest including the hosts, UW-Lacrosse, and our rivals Marquette and Creighton. The Fighting Saints Battalion's Alpha team won the competition, finishing the course in 4 hours and 3 minutes, and our Bravo team placed 12th overall with a time of 5 hours and 28 minutes. In addition to the 16 miles of rucking, teams were tested on their skills. These including a fire building lane, a weapons lane, a hypothermic casualty treatment lane, a knot tying lane and a 2.5 mile simulated casualty evacuation sled drag. Our teams have been training for months in order to excel at this competition, arising early to do physical training every morning before class and training for the skills lanes several evenings each week. Some training consisted of a 12 mile ruck march on Lake Sag. This is the second year in a row the Fighting Saints have won the Northern Warfare Challenge. The members of Alpha team were Dean Amundson, Alex Wiczek, Tucker Rockis, Ryan Pinewski and Jakob Selb. The members of Bravo team were Kaleb Carlson, Mark Lorenz, Aidan Moran, Mark Weir and Michael Langevin. In addition to bragging rights and getting to keep the traveling trophy for another year, the Fighting Saints Battalion was awarded an Air Assault School slot this summer for one of our cadets.
A quote from this year’s team captain, MSIII, Cadet Dean Amundson:
"The competition was stiff this year, but our training paid off. On all the lanes our teams worked together just like we had trained, executed and delivered results. Physically, everyone pushed themselves to the max, and we couldn't have asked for a better performance."
We are very proud of our two Northern Warfare teams and their performance this weekend. The Fighting Saints are happy to hold onto the traveling trophy for yet another year. Go Fighting Saints!
Both the FSB Alpha and Bravo team posing with the first-place trophy!
Both FSB teams praying together before they stepped off for the competition.
Alpha team during the competition.
Bravo team during the competition.