MTSU's Bold Warrior team

An 11-member MTSU team recently took top honors in the Bold Warrior Challenge regional competition in Ft. Knox, Ky., out of a field of 44 teams from a five-state area.

The first-place finish earned the team a berth in the international Sandhurst Competition next April at West Point, N.Y.

“The Blue Raider batallion has done something they haven’t done since 1999 — and then the competition was only against 20 other teams,” said Lt. Col. T.K. Kast, chair of the Department of Military Science. “We watched a lot of teams think about it too long, and they thought themselves right out of it. We’re extremely proud of our team. They are a reflection of the entire battalion.”

All cadets on the winning MTSU team are from Tennessee and include Elliott Ralston, junior, and Brendan Duke and Wesley Smitty, sophomores, from Murfreesboro; Brandon Pearson, senior, from Manchester;  Chase Morris, senior, from Dyersburg; Elizabeth Dang and William Kemp, juniors, and Justin McIntosh, sophomore, from Columbia; Kimberly Isham and Austin Blanchard, seniors, from Franklin; and Kenneth Davie, junior, from Clarksville.

“It was an outstanding effort by the entire team,” added Team Captain Brandon Pearson. “We started training the first week of school, and each member shed tears, blood and sweat just to get there. We were ecstatic when we first heard that we had won. It took a couple of days for it to sink in.”

The Bold Warrior event tests a team’s endurance, strength and leadership abilities while negotiating a 16-mile course. The challenges along the way include an iron-warrior competition, land navigation, weapons assembly and disassembly, marksmanship, one-rope bridge, hand grenades, obstacle course, combat lifesaving and water-borne operations.

Competitors also complete a 10k ruck in between each event throughout the day. A ruck is a fast-paced walk or march over rugged terrain with a backpack.

An awards presentation was held Thursday on the MTSU campus. Col. Michael Chinn, 7th Brigade commander/cadet commander at Ft. Knox made the presentation to the university’s Department of Military Science.

“You ought to be proud,” Chinn told the cadets. “This course was not easy. This course was unknown to everyone who competed. You didn’t know how long it was or what tactics you would need to deploy. You had to think as a team. And you defeated 43 other teams. Congratulations.”