Raider team wins national championship
The Junior ROTC program at Leavenworth High School has another national championship.
Last weekend, members of a female team took first place in their division at the U.S. Army National Raider Championships in Molena, Georgia.
"It was great," said JROTC Cadet Capt. Jessie Lamb, commander of the female Raider team.
A male team from Leavenworth High School finished in second place in their division. And a Leavenworth coed team finished ninth in their division.
A group of 62 students in the Leavenworth High School Raider program left for the national competition Nov. 4. They were accompanied by their coaches and parents.
"We took the biggest group in the whole country," said retired 1st Sgt. Wayne Cogdill, who is one of the Raider coaches.
He said three charter buses paid for by the Army were used to transport the group to the event. The group returned Monday.
Cadet Capt. Jesse Purvis, the commander of the male team, said pretty much everyone at Leavenworth High School was outside to greet the Raider students when they returned.
The Army National Raider Championships took place at a Boy Scout camp. The teams each competed in five events, a rope bridge competition, an event called the gauntlet, a cross country rescue, a five-kilometer mountain run and a physical team test.
Purvis believes the male team set a record for the five-kilometer run.
The group completed the run is less than 21 minutes.
"We're pretty sure that is a course record," Purvis said.
He said the members of the male team are proud of the female team for their national championship.
"We are one big team, so we were excited for them," he said.
A Leavenworth High School student, Cadet Staff Sgt. Sophia Rebeschini, finished in fourth place in the female Ultimate Raider competition at the Army National Raider Championships. Another Leavenworth student, Cadet Staff Sgt. Jonathan Purvis, finished in 10th place in the male Ultimate Raider competition.
Lamb and Jesse Purvis are seniors this year. But Jesse Purvis is optimistic about how members of the local Raider program will do next year in competitions.
"I think they're going to be amazing next year," he said.
The Raider program from Leavenworth High School previously captured a national title in 2019.
Last spring, another group from the Leavenworth High School JROTC program won a national championship. The all-female team known as the Cavalry Angels won the overall unarmed drill team championship at the National High School Drill Team Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The team was the honorary grand marshal of Thursday's Leavenworth County Veterans Day Parade.
Raider students from Leavenworth High School also had a float in the parade.
Twitter: @LVTNewsJohnR
This article originally appeared on The Leavenworth Times: Raider team wins national championship
