KU ARMY ROTC HOSTS RANGER CHALLENGE COMPETITION
(Lawrence, Ks., April 9, 2022) - "Ranger Buddy" teams from 41 universities across the country converged on the cold, but bright fields of Sesquicentennial Point this weekend to participate in a grueling military skills challenge known as the Ranger Buddy Competition hosted by Kansas University’s Jayhawk Battalion.
The competition began in 1995 and has run every year except 202 due to COVID-19. This year’s event marked the 26th edition. In order to compete, all cadets had to be vaccinated and willing to face an incredibly difficult course. Each participating school could field men’s, women’s, and co-ed teams, each team consisting of two cadets.
The competition began with a 15km (9.3 mile) march while carrying a 35lb. ruck sack. Teams then navigated more than a dozen “stations” over a two-mile skills course. They disassembled and reassembled various military weapons, performed first aid, read military topographical maps, called for artillery fire, called for MEDEVAC, and employed claymores and hand grenades. To finish, they had to run a 5km (3.1mile) race in their tactical uniforms, then complete a devilish final “mystery event”: 50 deadlifts of 160lbs per male cadet and 25 deadlifts of 160lbs per female cadet.
If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. And after getting only a few hours of anxious sleep, 314 Army ROTC cadets from across the country did it all on a cold, but beautiful Kansas day. The winning teams in each division came across the finish line between six and seven hours after starting.
“These cadets displayed tremendous grit on a truly difficult course. We haven’t had a single complaint about it being too easy,” said Lt. Col. John Finch, the director of Army ROTC at KU.
Though teams from as far afield as Rhode Island and Northern Arizona competed in the event, the winners in each of the divisions came from closer to home. The Men’s Division was won by the University of Kansas, the Co-Ed and Women’s Divisions were won Minnesota-Twin Cities which allowed the Minnesota school to take the overall win as well.
The overall winner of the competition receives not only a massive trophy, and a much-coveted streamer for their battalion guidon, but also a single guaranteed slot for a cadet in their program to attend Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia. This year, the event and the Awards Ceremony were attended by the recently retired Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey.
“The ruck route this year was absolutely brutal,” said one cadet from Creighton University who noted that they considered this march more difficult than the much longer Bataan event held in New Mexico every year. This event was supported by the City of Lawrence, US Army Cadet Command, and the Kansas Army National Guard.
The University of Kansas Jayhawk Battalion recruits, develops, and commissions quality talent who are dedicated, motivated, and resilient in order to provide our Nation the next generation of agile and adaptive leaders of character who are prepared to lead teams and win in a complex world.