News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Fentress County’s Clarkrange JROTC won the 2023 National Fitness Championship with their first female team.
Army Instructor First Sargeant Gil Sandoval said Clarkrange won the competition the last two years in the co-ed category. This year the JROTC put together an all-female team with two experienced competitors and nine other cadets.
“And they showed up,” Sandoval said. “It was very rare that anybody ever missed a practice. And they got along so well and they worked so well together. It was just neat to see them bond like sisters and go out and win this.”
Sandoval said the competition was tougher this year. He said the field of teams was doubled and the stakes were raised.
He said the toughest part of the competition was the flexed arm hang where 6 team members hang as long as they can with chins over a chin-up bar. He said Clarkrange averaged last year’s 79-second winning time but that earned them third in the event this year.
“What happens, if your chin touches that bar, you’re done,” Sandoval said. “If you lift your chin up in the air, you’re done. If your chin drops below that bar, you’re done.”
Sandoval said out of the five events the team placed first in two, broad jump and power throw. He said they did a lot of out of the box training with plyometrics, box jumps, running up and down the bleachers, jumping over things, squats, just a lot of things that helped them to win.
“We’ve only been going to the fitness championship for the last three years,” Sandoval said. “You have to modify fitness training for younger people. You have to move up gradually so that they don’t get hurt.”
Sandoval has 20 female cadets already training for the next challenge.
