On Nov. 17-19, the Sparkman Raider team attended a national competition in Molina Georgia. 

“Well, at this nationals it was super cold and wet. When our boots got wet then our feet got wet. Everyone was still motivated, and kept the energy up. It was cold,” sophomore Kalea Loving said.

The competition offered five different ways to compete, including rope bridge, 4K mountain run, cross country rescue, physical test and gauntlet. Injuries in the 4K contest left the team without enough participants to complete the rope bridge. 

“In the 4k run event, we had multiple injuries, they were right before the last event. The last event was the rope bridge. If you didn’t have enough members to compete there was a penalty or disqualification. Since a lot of ours were injured we couldn’t compete,” LTC Lloyd Nathan Sr. said. 

Despite the penalty resulting in a 13th-place finish, the team made the most out of their time together as a team. 

“It was really hard but it was a fun experience, it was my first one. I bonded with a lot of people there. There were also a lot of injuries on the team,” sophomore Wesly Savage said.

Before the competition, the raiders had a campsite. It was set up at the site of the competition. It was a good experience for many of the first attendees.

“Camping was really nice, in Fort Knox we had barracks which were also nice. This was a lot of fun we roasted smores and stuff, it was really great but really cold,” Savage said.