BYU NewsNet - Army ROTC dominates in competition

BYU Army ROTC team captain Colby Park did not expect to have one of his most spiritual experiences while competing in a military competition.

The team had been running for miles and several hours when it reached its next unexpected challenge.

The squad leader had to act unconscious as the team was instructed to carry him on their backs while running through the woods, racing to the finish line.

“I could see how much pain my teammates were in as they carried me and struggled to give everything they had,” said Park, a recent graduate from Salt Lake City.

Park said he believes the Lord will provide spiritual experiences anywhere and anytime, even if you are in the midst of the Sandhurst Competition.

This year’s ROTC team did more than represent BYU as it recently placed fourth out of 48 teams, but it also learned to find joy in the journey in one of the most unlikely situations.

“We started training six days a week in January and continued up to the competition,” said Lt. Col. Ted Leblow, coach and department chair of military science. “They were training at least 20 hours a week and running 35 to 40 miles a week.”

Park said training was just as much mental as it was physical.

“The team personality really came out before the time of the actual competition,” Park said. “We were training, sweating, running and sometimes bleeding.”

Rachael Goodwin, a senior from Salt Lake City majoring in sociology, and the only female member of the team, said of all the physically demanding things she has done, she has never completed anything as physically, mentally and emotionally challenging.

“We would do pull-ups until our hands bled,” Goodwin said. “I loved the training but that was mostly because of the great guys I was with.”

Leblow said he knew it was important for the team to focus on strength training as well as endurance training in order to have a chance against some of the best military teams.

BYU placed the highest of any non-military school in the entire history of the Sandhurst Competition and also won the orienteering award.

“We came extremely close to winning the whole thing and we were the only team recognized twice,” Leblow said.

Their total time, including penalties, was four hours and 50 minutes. The winning team won with a score of four hours and 29 minutes, Leblow said.

“People were really surprised to see BYU in first place on the board the morning of the main competition,” said John Vomsta, a sophomore from Bear Lake, Idaho, majoring in biophysics.

Park said their time was competitive enough to keep them in the top position for the next three and a half hours.

“The whole time I prayed that we would be able to represent BYU, the church and our values and I really feel we accomplished that,” Park said.

He said it was great to hear others from West Point, Canadian and British teams that were talking about BYU and the Mormons.

“I think a lot of people walked away looking at BYU differently so we couldn’t have asked for a better finish,” Park said.

Leblow said although he couldn’t help the team, he loved to run alongside the team as they competed and overcame the various event challenges.

“We had trained and practiced potential events but in the actual competition each event had a little bit of a twist so the team never knew exactly what was coming,” Leblow said.

Some of the events included climbing over a giant wall, an obstacle course, rowing a boat in the lake, shooting targets, memorization games, rope-crossing over the river and orienteering through the woods to locate points with first aid and weaponry challenges, Leblow said.

“Each challenge required intense thinking skills which were definitely nurtured by BYU’s level of academics and quality of faculty and professors,” Vomsta said.

Goodwin said she has gained so much respect for what the troops do but was also excited to see how well BYU did compared to other teams from military schools.

“I’ve never been so tired in my life but I am definitely planning on competing in Sandhurst the next three years I have here,” Vomsta said.