By The wind whipped the coastal military installation as cadets of the Carroll College and University of Montana combined Ranger Challenge team awaited the results of this year’s Ranger Challenge competition.
“I wasn’t quite sure how we’d place,” said Tristan Pyette, junior health science major from Florence, Montana. “I was happy to be in the top three.”
This year the Carroll cadets helped fill out, team black and team gold. Team black was made up of six cadets from Carroll and five from UM. Team gold had three Carroll cadets and eight UM cadets. The teams finished in 2nd and 17th place respectively.
Ranger Challenge is an annual skills competition that takes place in different regions across the country. This year’s competition was at Camp Rilea, Oregon between Feb. 28 and March 2.
The competition tests several skills including using radios to communicate within teams, shooting competitions, and weapons disassembly and reassembly. All culminating in a ruck as the final event.
“The ruck was kinda easy, they could have made it a little harder,” said Tucker Love, sophomore business major from Charlo, Montana, with a smile on his face.
Twenty teams participated in Eighth Brigade’s Ranger Challenge north competition this year. The top team will be sent to a national competition at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This competition includes other Army ROTC programs, other military branches programs, and foreign teams from around the globe.
