Best Clemson Ranger Competition 2015

November 16, 2015

On Saturday, November 14^th 2015, the Clemson Ranger Club held the Best Clemson Ranger Competition. The competing teams consisted of Sawyer Willingham and Wyatt Grace, Alex Berg and Hunter Richardson, James Mann and Joseph Stephenson, and Brennan Gedney and Trey Phillips. The competition consisted of the RPFT, Commander’s Challenge, Iron Strike, land navigation at Fants Grove, weapons disassembly/ assembly, and a 6.4 mile ruck march from Fants Grove back to Campus.

Contestants and graders arrived at the Norman Track at 0545 for the RPFT, which consisted of two minutes of push-ups, followed by 2 minutes of sit-ups, and as many pull-ups as possible. Next came the 5-mile run. The best time for the 5-mile was Sawyer Willingham finishing with a time of 32 minutes and 17 seconds. After the RPFT all the teams were close but Sawyer Willingham’s performance on the run put him and Wyatt Grace in the lead. Next came the Commander’s Challenge. The teams were separated and given 25 minutes to complete a test covering topics from Ranger History to land navigation.

The next event was the Iron Strike. The Iron Strike consisted of a 800m run, 200m IMT course, 800m run, 200m water jug carry, 800m run, 200m buddy carry, 800m run, 100m tire flip, 800m run, 200m liter carry, and finishing with a final 800m run. Going into the final 800m Alex Berg and Hunter Richardson were neck to neck with Sawyer Willingham and Wyatt Grace. However over the course of the 800m run, Wyatt Grace and Sawyer Willingham opened up a commanding lead and held it until the finish, winning their second event of the day and firmly placing themselves in first overall.

After the Iron Strike, the competition moved to Fants Grove. At Fants Grove teams topped off their water and were given eight land navigation points. To earn the maximum amount of points for the event the teams had to successfully find five of the eight points with a two and half hour time limit. James Mann and Joseph Stephenson came in first place, finding five points and finishing well before time was up. Upon conclusion of the land navigation portion of the competition the buddy teams worked together to disassemble and assemble a M4 rifle and an M9 pistol. Once again Sawyer Willingham and Wyatt Grace came away with first place from the weapons event.

Finally came the 6.4 mile ruck march back to Clemson from Fants Grove. The rucks were weighed to make sure very contestant had at least 40lbs in their ruck sack. Then the contestants topped off their water, were given an M4 rifle replica, and the road march began. At the very begging Sawyer Willingham and Wyatt Grace opened up a commanding lead on the rest of the field and held it all the way to the finish, competing the ruck in one hour, 16 minutes, and 15 seconds. The next team to cross the line was the team consisting of James Mann and Joseph Stephenson finishing in a time of one hour, 23 minutes, and 47 seconds.

Once all teams finished the ruck march all the graders convened and the scores were tallied. All of the teams performed well, as expected from Clemson Rangers, but Sawyer Willingham and Wyatt Grace carried the day in no uncertain fashion earning themselves the title of Best Clemson Ranger and a chance to compete in a regional Best Ranger Competition.