Twenty members of the University’s Ranger Club returned to campus Sunday, from a military skills competition at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
The competition called the Ranger Challenge included teams from colleges in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.
The twenty members were split up into two teams of 10 members. Team A placed 10th in the competition and Team B placed 17th. There were 22 teams that entered the competition.
Team B which was compared to a junior varsity team by team members. A team member Juene Rader said the purpose for the B team is more for training and experience than to actually win the competition.
Rader the only senior that competed this year has been to the Ranger Challenge three times.
“This year I was put in charge a lot more and I had a lot of responsibility,” Rader said.
Rader also said that this years team has the most camaraderie that she had ever seen.
Bowling Green’s two groups competed against each other as well as the other school teams.
“I thought everything went great,” team member Brandon Davis said, “we really came together well as a team.”
Events for the competition included rifle marksmanship, a grenade assault course, weapons assembly, land navigation, a 10K road march, one rope bridge, patrolling, a physical fitness test.
The different events were worth different point values and were timed.
There was a total of 42 people who attended the Ranger Challenge, 20 participators and 22 supporters.
Stacie Conway went to the Ranger Challenge to give the teams moral support and also as a Range Safety. She said she was very proud of their accomplishments.
Paul Worley, the A team captain, said that they are were happy with their 5th place finish in marksmanship, 6th place finish in grenade throw, and 2nd place in the 10K road march.
Team A’s 2nd place finish in the 10K road march was the most talked about event by the team members.
William Figueroa, a junior and third year participant in the Ranger challenge, said that the road march is a very difficult event because it is done in full gear.
“It was a real bonding experience for our group,” Figueroa said.
Matt Seckel, freshman and member of the A team, said that he also felt the competition helped to bring unity to the group.
“I also think that the weekend helped me realize that I have strengths and weaknesses,” Seckel said.
Seckel said that all semester he had been able to compare himself to his other team members, but at competition he was able to compare himself to participants of other schools.
To create the teams for this competition there were try-outs the first week of school, there were 27 people that tried out. The try-outs lasted for a month.
Training for the Ranger Challenge consisted of team training from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. five days a week. Worley said that they occasionally trained on Saturday’s as well.
“Waking up at 5:30 a.m. and being a student was really hard,” Figueroa said.