{"id":28056,"date":"2019-10-31T11:36:14","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T16:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28056"},"modified":"2019-10-31T11:36:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T16:36:14","slug":"austin-peay-state-universitys-ranger-challenge-team-knows-what-to-expect-at-sandhurst-after-winning-bold-warrior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/10\/31\/austin-peay-state-universitys-ranger-challenge-team-knows-what-to-expect-at-sandhurst-after-winning-bold-warrior\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University\u2019s Ranger Challenge team \u2018knows what to expect\u2019 at Sandhurst after winning Bold Warrior"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) Ranger Challenge team entered the 7th Brigade ROTC Bold Warrior Challenge awards ceremony confident their performance had propelled them to the top or runner-up spot of the competition.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University (APSU) Ranger Challenge team<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThey announced all the winners of the events first,\u201d team co-captain Walt Higbee said. \u201cThat\u2019s when we didn\u2019t think we had won because we won only two events and Ohio University, Louisville and Michigan State won more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organizers then announced the third-place overall winner: Ohio University. And runner-up Louisville. The room started buzzing, anticipating Michigan State, which had won the most individual events, was about to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my head, I thought, \u2018We were not prepared,\u2019\u201d co-captain Daniel Cole recalled. \u201cWe all thought it was going to be Michigan State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the announcement came: \u201cThe winner of the 2019 Bold Warrior Ranger Challenge is awarded to none other than Austin Peay State University.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win is the first for Austin Peay at the Bold Warrior Challenge, and it qualifies the team for the second straight time for West Point\u2019s Sandhurst 2020 competition. APSU will be one of 16 ROTC teams at Sandhurst, the world\u2019s premier academy-level military skills competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot begin to express how impressed I am with our team and how well they represented APSU this past weekend,\u201d said Lt. Col. Eric A. Westphal, professor of military science. \u201cSimply put, they outworked all other teams and truly set the example for all others to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preparing for the torrents of rain<\/h3>\n
\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University Ranger Challenge team at the Bold Warrior Challenge. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Bold Warrior Challenge October 25th-27th at Fort Knox, Kentucky, was a grueling two-day competition. Austin Peay State University defeated 37 schools from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.<\/p>\n

Austin Peay State University won the competition by earning 1,071 points out of a possible 1,500 points. APSU earned about 50 points more than Louisville. Michigan State finished fourth.<\/p>\n

[320right]Although APSU won only two of the 39 events, the team finished consistently in the top three of all the events, Cole said. The team, as it turns out, was well prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew the bad weather was coming,\u201d Cole said. \u201cWe knew we were going to do this with these people going here doing A, B, C. We knew how we were going to attack it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two things impressed Westphal most:<\/p>\n