Photo By Scott Thornbloom | MADISON, Wis., (October 26, 2019) – The Ohio State University Naval Reserve Officers...... read more read more
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Story by Scott A. Thornbloom, Naval Service Training Command Public Affairs
MADISON, Wis. (Oct. 26, 2019) – The Ohio State University beat the University of Wisconsin in college football 38-7, October 26.
On the same day that game was being decided in Columbus, Ohio, The Ohio State University Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit was beating Wisconsin and five other NROTC units at Wisconsin’s annual Fall Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.
“We love coming here and we love coming to Wisconsin. It’s always a great competition and a great opportunity for us to showcase our talents,” said Midshipman 1st Class Nicole Csizma, a senior from Solon, Ohio, and The Ohio State NROTC battalion commander.
More than 250 NROTC midshipmen converged on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for camaraderie, celebration and competition. The Wisconsin Badger battalion planned and ran the entire invitational. This year the Buckeye Battalion from The Ohio State won by a substantial margin with 697.5 points over second place Purdue (592.5). Wisconsin finished third (560) with Illinois coming in fourth (527.5) while Miami of Ohio, Marquette and Iowa State universities followed in fifth, sixth and seventh. There were also a few family members and friends that traveled to Madison to see their midshipmen compete.
“Our unit is very resourceful,” Csizma said. “We are always able to find ways to better our training, increase the amount of training and we’re very flexible with our time and schedule. If we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it right, we’re going to give 100 percent and we’re going to make sure we’re the best.”
UW-Madison has been hosting this unique autumn drill meet for more than 40 years. This year’s invitational included military drill contests, a physical fitness run around the campus and a rifle and pistol shooting competition.
“It was nice seeing the upper classmen in action doing the things we’ve been practicing throughout the year,” said Ohio State Midshipman 4th Class and freshman Katie Johnson, from Oak Hill, Ohio. “Overall it was a great experience to learn about and get to know the other people from the other schools.”
Midshipman 4th Class Sarah Levine, also a freshman from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, agreed with her classmate. “It’s really nice talking with the other members of the other units and seeing how they do the same things we to at Ohio State.”
What makes the UW-Madison event unique is the Urban Adventure Race (UAR), a grueling four-midshipman race around the university campus. In past years the UAR has been 9.2-miles. This year it was cut back to 6.2-miles but was still a demanding event with numerous exercise stations added to the course. Each exercise station was worth points that were computed into the overall time.
“This is either our 42nd year or 47th year hosting the fall invitational, depending on who you talk to, so we have a long tradition of friendly competition with other Navy ROTC units,” said Capt. Greg Zacharski, commanding officer and NROTC Professor of Naval Science for the Wisconsin unit, who was hosting his third invitational. “This is a great competition, a tough competition and it turned out to be a fantastic event. I think everybody was well fed, enjoyed themselves and are walking away comrades-in-arms despite the healthy competition among all.”
Competition began early in the morning on Oct. 26 with the 6.2-mile UAR around the university campus. The course began at the Department of Naval Science building and consisted of several exercise stations that included pull-ups, buddy carries up and down Bascom Hill that looks over the center of town and the state capital building, and several U. S. Marine Corps exercises out on Picnic Point on the shores of Lake Mendota. The competitors finished at the NROTC building. This year, The Ohio State University captured first place in the adventure race finishing with a time of 1:39:40 and 150 total points. Marquette University placed second with a UAR time of 1:43:17 and 120 points just edging out third place Illinois (1:43:42, 97.5 points) and 4th place Miami of Ohio (1:44:16, 75 points) at the finish line. Wisconsin, Purdue and Iowa State finished 5th, 6th and 7th respectively in the UAR.
In the pistol and rifle competition, held at an indoor range in Deerfield, Wisconsin, Illinois finished first with 150 total points in pistol and Ohio State also scored 150 total points in the rifle competition. Ohio State’s Midshipman 2nd Jake Levine, a junior from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, scored a total of 139 out of 150 to claim top rifle shooter honors. Wisconsin’s Midshipman 2nd Class Michael Elwing, a junior from Brookfield, Wisconsin, was the pistol champion with a score of 144 out of 150.
Also on Saturday, at the university’s Camp Randall Memorial Center, known as The Shell, and next to the football stadium, teams competed in three separate events – platoon rifle drill, squad rifle drill, and color guard. In preparation for the drill competition, the teams spend months practicing precise movements in unison. The event was graded by Marine Corps Assistant Marine Officer Instructors (AMOI), who critiqued each movement on the drill field. The Buckeye Battalion took first place in platoon rifle drill, while the Purdue University Boilermaker Battalion took first in both squad rifle drill and color guard. Purdue also scored the most pull ups (100) in the day’s final event before the awards ceremony in the UW-Madison NROTC Department of Naval Science building.
“We think of our event as a prestigious Midwest Drill Meet,” said Midshipman 1st Class Katherine Katula, a senior and the UW-Madison NROTC battalion commander. “We’ve hosted this fall event for a number of years where we can have a bunch of good Midwestern schools come here and meet each other. We know a lot of people from these other schools and being able to see them years after year is really important to us. It’s an important legacy for us to be able to keep this tradition going.”
Capt. Zacharski attended the award ceremony at the end of the day to hand out trophies and to congratulate all of the midshipmen who participated in the invitational.
“I hope they all can come away from this competition recognizing that they are each a peer and equal competitor and then walk away realizing we are all on the same team and continue being comrades-in-arms and friends when they eventually get out to the fleet,” Zacharski said.
The NROTC midshipmen that participated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison NROTC Fall Invitational are among more than 4,000 students enrolled in the NROTC program at colleges and universities throughout the country.
The NROTC program is supported by Rear Adm. Jamie Sands, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), and his headquarters staff at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. NROTC was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically. The program also imbues in them the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as Naval and Marine Corps officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the Naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.
NSTC supports 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy’s Citizenship Development program. NSTC’s support also includes RTC, the Navy’s only boot camp, also at Naval Station Great Lakes; the NROTC program at more than 160 colleges and universities; OTC at Newport, Rhode Island; and the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.
For more information on NROTC visit: www.nrotc.navy.mil/
For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit: www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.
For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.
For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.
| Date Taken: | 10.26.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2019 17:04 |
| Story ID: | 349779 |
| Location: | MADISON, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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