Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"May 3, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
May
3, 2002
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| The academy’s Bicentennial team moves from the marksmanship site to the grenade site Saturday during the annual Sandhurst Competition. The USMA team finished with the second highest score on the day with an 800, but it still wasn’t enough to knock off the Brits Sandhurst Red Team who came in with a score of 889 out of a possible 1,000 points. |
The best that West Point, the Royal Military College of Canada, the Officer School of the German Army and 42 other teams overall -- the largest-ever field in the 35-year history of the Sandhurst competition -- could offer still wasn’t good enough to de-throne the Brits in Sandhurst 2002.
The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst Red Team took home top honors Saturday with a score of 889 points out of 1000 to earn top foreign team honors as well as the coveted Reginald E. Johnson Memorial Plaque.
Taking second was the U.S. Military Academy’s "Bicentennial" team with a score of 800.
RMAS Blue was third with 784 and the A2 Spartans were fourth with 780. The C1 Crusaders were fifth at 761.
Second Regiment won the Sandhurst Trophy for having the highest company average in the brigade beating First Regiment in total points 5139 to 4848.
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| A1 senior Axemen Jim Russo (left) and Marek Rudak help junior teammate Dan Gregory up over the Ranger Wall. |
The top five cadet company teams earned Sandhurst patches and were A2, C1, the F3 F-Troop with 739, the D2 Dragons at 737 and the F2 Zoo with 734.
Embry-Riddle University boasted a 704, downing four other ROTC teams. They also earned the Marksmanship streamer by shooting a 130 out of a possible 145.
The Coast Guard Academy won the Sister Academy category with a 512 to Navy’s 468 and Air Force’s 330.
The Commandant’s Challenge this year proved to be just that -- a challenge.
Each nine-person squad had to move 37 five-gallon water cans a distance of 240-yards back and forth in front of the Superintendent’s quarters in seven-and-a-half minutes.
Not all the teams could do it.
"We spend a lot of time doing physical training," RMAS Red team member Officer Cadet Rob Lawrence said about the day’s final site. "It wasn’t too bad. We were sort of looking forward to it."
Bicentennial team squad leader Cadet 1st Class John Ulsamer didn’t exactly agree.
"The real killer was the Comm’s Challenge," he said. "That was worse than any Comm’s Challenge I have ever had. Carrying logs, carrying boats, we can do that. When I got out there it was a little rougher than I thought."
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| The B1 Barbarians paddle their way through the Boat Movement Site. |
The three-time Sandhurst vet credited his team’s showing to the tough training and team spirit they went through over the last seven weeks.
Lawrence said the course was good and tough.
"It could have been a bit longer," he said with the hint of a smile.
One thing Lawrence and his countrymen were glad of was that the ordeal of defending their title was over. Losing the Johnson plaque, it seems, is not an option anymore for British teams.
"You don’t even have a chance to go back heroes," Lawrence said. "If you win it’s like ‘Oh, well, you were supposed to.’ You can’t really go back a winner. You can only go back a loser."
