News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Clarkrange High School Army JROTC have claimed another national title after winning the Fitness Championship at Daytona Beach, Florida.
RTOC Instructor 1st Sergeant Gilbert Sandoval said this event has historically been won by the Navy and Air Force but now the Army JROTC has claimed victory. Sandoval said his nine cadets were the only Army RTOC team selected to represent five U.S. states.
“These cadets, when they put this down on their applications for scholarships,” Sandoval said. “That’s going to say, ‘hey I was part of this team,’ and you know that if you were part of national championship team, you obviously must have some dedication.”
Sandoval said they targeted this event as a new goal after winning back to back All Service Raider National Championship Coed Division titles in 2018 and 2019. He said just some of the highlights of the cadets accomplishments include first and second place in the pull-up competition and female cadets took first place in the flexed arm hand.
“Cadet Leanna Norris won fifth place Ultimate Fitness Female, we also had Cadet Timothy Martin win fifth place Ultimate Fitness Male,” Sandoval said. “In pull-ups are Cadet John Flowers won second place overall and Cadet Zach Roberts won first place overall.”
Sandoval said they got the suggestion to compete in the Fitness Championship while in Georgia competing in the All Service Raider National Championship. Sandoval said with another goal accomplished, the next challenge they have to target is themselves.
“We’re gonna go after it again, we looked at what we needed to do to win,” Sandoval said. “How far did you need to jump? We looked at all the things from the past and we went after that and we exceeded our goals in everything. So it’s basically, lets keep the same thing but lets go a little bit further, it’s now who do we have to go after? It’s our self, so now we have to go a little bit beyond this year.”
The event had challenges that included a three kilometre run, standing broad jump, seated ball throw and much more. The Clarkrange High School Army JROTC represented Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan.
