The Pioneer Raider Team competed in the U.S. Army JROTC Raider Nationals over the weekend and ended their season on a high note.

JROTC Raider coach 1st Sgt. Tim Howard previously said this team is the most prepared team the program has seen in his 15 years as instructor, and this weekend they lived up to that statement. The team had been preparing for this competition since June and all of the hard work and preparation paid off.

“This team has been working since June 14 for this one weekend to show their grit and determination to be the best that they can,” said Howard. “All of the prior competitions and many hours of practice prepared them for this test. I could not have had a better group of kids. I challenged them and they met the challenge head on and were successful.”

The male team finished the competition as the ninth best team in the country. This team also won a fifth-place trophy in the rope bride competition with a time of 2:19.

“Out of the 29 male teams selected to attend, the Pioneer males earned a fifth-place trophy on the one rope bridge with a time of 2:19. The winning time was a 1:54 so they weren’t too far off. The last-place time was a 6:36 for comparison reasons,” said Howard.

In the other events, the male team did not earn a trophy, but did well enough to be ranked within the top 10.

“As far as other events, they did fairly well. Not within the top five placements, but good enough on all of them to be ranked within the top 10 in the country. The team earned a ranking of ninth place in the country,” said Howard.

The female team finished as a second place team in the small unit division. 

“The female team came together and competed with zeal,” said Howard. “They worked their tail off and earned a second-place finish in the small unit division for females. This is the first time in 10 years to have a female team and their very first time ever in Raider Nationals. So to do as well as they did was a major accomplishment.”

The coed team did not place, but had a very strong showing and is continuing to improve.

“The mixed team had some stiff competition as well. They did not earn a trophy but their resilience to compete earned them a 12th place ranking in the country as a coed team out of almost 30 teams,” said Howard.

The seniors who lead the teams at the competition were male team leader Thomas Turpin, assistant male team leader Lucas Pescevic, male team member Jacob Cox, coed team leader Antonio Hernandez, and female team leader Olivia Talbert.

Now that the season has come to an end, Howard is looking forward to next year.

“We will start all over again in June with what I believe will be an even stronger team as we only graduate five from the 39 on the team,” he said.