|  | |  |  | |  | | | | |
NAVY NATIONALS: APRIL 13-14, 2012
NORTHMONT NJROTC RANKED EIGHTH BEST IN THE NATION!
It was hot; it was humid; and it was intense. And that was just the athletic competition! Northmont NJROTC completed a highly competitive and highly successful drill season with a strong finish at the 2011 Navy Nationals in Pensacola, FL, April 8-9.
The two-day event pits the nation’s 25 best teams against each other in a competition involving athletics (push-ups, sit-ups, 8x220 relay and 16x100 shuttle relay), academics, personnel inspection and marching events (armed and unarmed Individual Drill Regulation, armed and unarmed exhibition and color guard).
Each day’s events start at 7 am and end after 8:30 in the evening. When the sun set into the horizon beyond the Gulf of Mexico on April 9, Northmont had received 7 individual medals, tied for 3rd in academics and finished 8th in the nation.
Our female athletic members started the momentum by taking three individual awards: Cadet Teghan Sharp with 2nd place in sit-ups (289), Cadet Sarah Haman with 4th in sit-ups (285) and Cadet Kierstin Lowman with 8th in push-ups (72). Shawnee Mission North High School from Kansas dominated both categories, with top finishers completing 160 push-ups and 330 sit-ups.
Northmont Cadet Evan Fleming placed 1st in the academic competition, a test so difficult (100 multiple choice questions covering four years of naval science curriculum and current events) that his winning score was a 68!
Northmont cadets also won awards at the competition’s last event, knock-out. Hundreds of cadets filled the floor, executing individual stationary drill commands en mass with judges “knocking them out” by tapping them when the execution of the commands were not exactly as written in the drill manual. When the dust settled Cadet Cody Petkus received 3rd, Cadet Kurtis Reid received 5th and Cadet Brett Wheeler received 7th in Armed Knock-out.
Northmont’s impressive finishes in inspection (9th), unarmed exhibition (11th), athletics (13th), armed exhibition (13th), armed IDR (13th), color guard (15th), unarmed IDR (17th) and the outstanding finish in academics catapulted the unit to 8th place, topping 10-time champion, Flour Bluff, and finishing higher than any Area 3 school in the history of Navy Nationals competition.
The 2011 Navy Nationals competition was won by 1st time champs Boca Raton High School from Boca Raton, Florida. Rounding out the top 5 are Troy High School, Fullerton, CA; Centennial High School, Las Vegas, NV; Pine Forest High School, Pensacola, FL; and Shawnee Mission North High School, Overland Park, KS. Area 3 West Champions Zion Benton High School from Zion, IL, finished 22nd.
The class of 2012, Lieutenant Colonel Ken Knotts, and Senior Chief James Griffin are already using this momentum to prepare to defend their Area 3 East title and compete at next year’s Navy Nationals.
Northmont Earns 1st Place in Drill at 2010 Navy Nationals
The Northmont NJROTC unit, led by senior naval science instructor Lt Col Ken Knotts and naval science instructor SCPO Jim Griffin, spent April 7-12, 2010, on the Gulf Coast to compete in Navy Nationals, the NJROTC national championship. Regional competitions involving 639 Navy JROTC units from 13 areas around the nation competed for the 26 slots in the Navy Nationals competition at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, FL. The Navy Nationals pitted these 26 top units against each other in athletics, academics, and drill events. Northmont placed 10th, taking 1st and 3rd in unarmed regulation drill and armed regulation drill, respectively. Northmont placed 9th in the athletic competition and 8th in the academics competition. This top-10 showing places Northmont in the top 1% of NJROTC units in the nation.
Our athletic teams brought home four individual medals. The males were led by cadet Ramsey Crow who placed 10th in curl-ups. The female cadets were impressive, with Cadet Teghan Sharp placing eighth in curl-ups, Cadet Kierstin Lowman placing 6th in push-ups and Cadet Melanie Collins placing 9th in push-ups out of over 200 female competitors. The female curl-up team was third best in the nation, with a total of 1138 curl-ups from the eight cadets.
Concluding the two-day event was the knockout competition. Over a thousand cadets poured onto the drill deck, and when it was over, three of the top ten cadets left standing in the unarmed knockout competition were Northmont cadets Zach Hart, Lucas Hanson, and Rasheen Ware. Additionally, individual armed knock-out medals were awarded to cadets Jordan Eubanks and Anthony Brown.
The senior leadership made a goal at the beginning of the school year to place tenth or higher at Navy Nationals, and they have accomplished this goal. “It shows the level of commitment and dedication these young adults have toward setting and obtaining their goals,” noted Senior Chief Griffin. “Commanding Officer cadet Eubanks and this year’s senior staff, Melanie Collins, Krissi Dillon, Bethany Fisher and Jacque Long, are to be commended.” Now the next year’s incoming seniors and the rest of the returning team have their sights focused on returning to Pensacola and placing even higher.
Every year the competition gets tougher and every team is better prepared than they were the year before. The top teams come back to Pensacola every year, stronger, faster, and sharper than ever.
 |
|
| |  | |  |  | |  |
| |
