Ranger Challenge

     On October 11-12, 2008, The Gonzaga University Bulldog Battalion Black Team won the Task Force Big Sky Ranger Challenge Championship at Lubrecht Experimental Forest just North of Missoula, Montana.  Gonzaga defeated eight other teams from the University of Montana, Montana State University, BYU Idaho, Idaho State, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Boise State University.  The Black team took away the trophy by dominating in the 10k ruck march, the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), Hand Grenade Assault Course, and Rope Bridge events.  Gonzaga also fielded a second team, Gold team, that pushed the competition and finished in 7th place overall. 

     

     Gonzaga and Whitworth cadets worked together under the leadership of cadet 2lt Patrick Constantino and Cadet SGT Shannon Price, the OIC and NCOIC of this years teams.  Constantino lead the Black team as captain while Price maintained the Gold team as captain.  Each team consists of 9 competitors and an alternate whom work together to accomplish the mission in 7 separate events.  The competition starts with the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) including pushups, situps and a 2 mile run.  From there, the teams move through the next 5 events in a round robbin system including the M16 disassembly/reassembly, orienteering, land navigation written test, hand grenade assault course (HGAC) and the rope bridge.  The teams finish with a 10K ruck march that, for the black team, is considered nothing short of a ruck RUN.

   

     Black Team started off strong as usual by winning the APFT by averaging the individual scores into a collective high score.  With motivation high, yet controlled nerves, black team moved on to post strong scores in the orienteering competition, M16 disassembly/reassembly, and land navigation written test.  As the team moved on to the Rope Bridge competition, it knew what to do and how to do it.  The team wiped the competition with its flawless execution of assembling, crossing, and disassembling a rope bridge between 2 separate sets of trees.  Again, black team stayed calm and collected for the hand grenade assault course as it, one at a time, moved through 4 obstacles including a 40m target, 25m target, bunker, and low wire crawl.  Going into the 10K ruck march, black team was barely ahead of the next 2 teams so there was no room for mediocrity.  Black team finished 14 minutes ahead of the next team, a blow out performance in a grueling final battle.

   

    Gonzaga Black team also featured the top two APFT scores in the competition.  Scotty Oplinger won the male APFT and Jenna Peterson posted the top female APFT score.  The APTF started at 5:15am well under freezing, making such high scores even more impressive.  Even the finish of the 2 mile run featured no day light in a winding forest road.

                                                                  

   

    The win in Lubrecht Forest earned not only a Big Sky Task Force Win, but also a Brigade level win.  The scores from all the Task Forces within the 13th Brigade were tallied and Gonzaga Black sealed the victory.  This also earned the team a selection as one of 8 teams in the nation to compete for a national Ranger Challenge title, sandhurst.  This year, the national title would be held at Westpoint Military Academy.  Unfortunately, due to uncontrolled circumstances outside of Gonzaga's control, the team was unable to go to the competition.  Regardless, the Gonzaga University Black Team performed to its utmost ability to earn the title of Brigade Champions and among the top 8 of over 250 programs nation wide.  A well earned and honorable feat for the team and a reflection of the level of excellence that Gonzaga and Whitworth prevail to. 

 

BLACK TEAM