PILOT MOUNTAIN, NC – After winning the Fourth Brigade Mid-Atlantic Championship in April, the Warrior Raiders graduated two key members of their team.
There was looming uncertainty going into the new season and the first competition of the year in Pilot Mountain, NC on Saturday.
The Raiders’ Coed Team had a strong performance by finishing first in three of five events to claim their first championship of the year.
This regional win earns them a berth to the Fourth Brigade Mid-Atlantic Championship on April 4 of next year to be held at Magna Vista High School.
Led by Commander Kolby Quigg and four-year veterans Enrique O’Campo-Suarez and Kaitlyn Silvers the Warrior Battalion had a strong showing.
In the grueling Team Physical Fitness Challenge, they were ahead of the field with a time of three minutes 52 seconds, six seconds ahead of the second-place team.
The TPFC is a course with a series of obstacles the team must execute over a one-fourth mile stretch.
Some of the obstacles are the tire flip, carry a heavy item as a team, low crawl, and going over hurdles.
They dominated the next event, the litter obstacle course, with a time of three minutes 10 seconds, 31 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.
The litter obstacle course is also approximately one-fourth of mile carrying a simulated casualty on litter.
The team must negotiate six-foot and eight-foot walls, drag the litter under a low crawl and lift it over two high obstacles.
One of the keys to this event is teamwork, transitioning the litter among the team members overt and under obstacles.
The transitions are executed by the raiders carrying the litter and passing it off to other team members waiting on the other side of an obstacle, such as the low crawl.
They must do this approximately three to four times throughout the course.
The other first place finish was on the one rope bridge crossing event.
The has been a strong event in the Warrior Raider’s past history.
On this day they continued their dominance of the event with a time of one minute and 55 seconds, bettering the second-place team by 10 seconds.
The Warriors actual raw time was one minute and seconds, but was assessed a 10 second penalty.
Team members must construct Australian and Swiss seats using a 14-foot rope, set up the one rope bridge, cross the one rope bridge by hanging upside down pulling themselves across the gap and finally disassembling the rope bridge.
Stand outs for this event were Trinity Davis and Marky Martinez.
Trinity constructed her Australian seat and had the team ready to set up the one rope bridge in under 25 seconds.
Marky completed the rope bridge construction at a blistering pacing by securing the the nearside anchor knot, completing the bridge set up in 52 seconds.
From this point the team crossed and disassemble the bridge in 53 seconds for time of one minute and seconds.
Although it was good day for the Raider Coed team, they say they work to do.
“We need to improve our 5K time. We brought home a second-place finish with a time under 29 minutes as a team, but our time needs to improve going forward. This is something we will focus on during practices," SFC Truini said.
David Sharpe, Amelia Hubbard, Victoria Pritchett and Marco Duarte performed at very high levels to greatly contribute to the team’s success.
The team says competing in Raider competitions is a total team effort. We'll progress as a team and get stronger as the year progresses.
Over the next six weeks the Warrior Raider team has a full schedule.
They will travel to China Grove on October 12 to compete in tournament, then off to compete in the Army National Raider Competition on November 2.
The very next week they will travel to Chesterfield to compete in the Virginia State Meet.
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