Dual National Championships for Francis Lewis JROTC

BY: BOB DODA
Each year, Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) competitors from high schools across the country compete in the National Raider Challenge Championships – a series of grueling events that make the New York City Marathon look like a walk in the park. History was made earlier this month when both male and female teams from Francis Lewis High School captured national titles in Molena, Georgia – a feat never accomplished before.
Led by Retired Master Sergeant Peter A. Rompf, the Patriots and the Patriotettes trained all summer and the beginning of the school year for five events to be completed in succession. First, the cadets built and crossed a river using a rope bridge followed by two minutes of both push-ups and sit-ups. The third event is a 5K race, which is followed by even more running through a tougher terrain and with a 35 pound book bag. The last event is the cross-country rescue where teams run a mile through the woods carrying a stretcher while wearing the weighted bags and overcoming obstacles including a low crawl and an eight foot wall.
“The teams basically didn’t have a summer off. We were constantly here practicing,” said Rompf, who spent a large part of the past months finding ways to shave seconds off the teams’ overall time.
Out of the 54 teams from 31 schools nationwide, the Patriotettes dominated the competition and made Raiders history by finishing first in all five events. Cadet Magdalena Janczak of Francis Lewis took home the top individual honor as Ultimate Raider due to her outstanding performance on the course. The Patriots sweat out their victory, winning by only one second to become this year’s national champions.
“It was a bit of a nail biter,” said Rompf. “We didn’t know we won till they announced the results. The guys were very excited.”
The Raider Competition is modeled after the Ranger Challenge of the U.S. Army, which is a special operations unit. It was the third first place finish for the Patriots and the second consecutive first place finish for the Patriotettes.