Liberty Army ROTC team takes first place in annual Ranger Challenge

Liberty University Army ROTC cadets took first place in the 4th Brigade Army ROTC Ranger Challenge held Feb. 21-22 at Fort Pickett, the Virginia National Guard installation in Blackstone, Va. The team beat out cadets from 43 other teams, including Virginia Military Institute (No. 2) and The Citadel (No. 3). Liberty’s team will go on to compete at the Sandhurst International Military Skills Competition at West Point from May 1-2, where over 45 teams from around the world will vie for the championship title.

The 4th Brigade Ranger Challenge competition is a series of 10 different events that test cadets’ physical, mental, leadership, and teamwork abilities, including weapons assembly testing, the Commander’s Challenge (a Murph workout), a 4.5-mile run with a 35-pound rucksack, and an overall 8.5-mile movement. Liberty placed first in three events — Functional Fitness, Commander’s Challenge, and the 8.5 mile ruck — and landed in the top five in Weapons Assembly and Disassembly, One Rope Bridge, Communication, Grenade Assault Course, and Tactical Combat Casualty Care. They also tied for first in the Patrolling event. The top three teams overall from 4th Brigade will now move on to West Point to compete in the Sandhurst Competition.

Capt. Connor O’Neal, assistant professor of military science, served as coach. After holding two-week tryouts last semester, 11 cadets were chosen from an established Ranger Challenge Platoon (35-40 cadets) to compete in the competition. The remaining cadets in the platoon help prepare the team by scrimmaging against them throughout the year.

Though O’Neal offered guidance and support, he said the team is structured to be “intentionally cadet-led,” and cadets and seniors Kyle Fetcho and Micah Tonsing were the designated team captains and the ones who assessed tryouts. O’Neal said the team captains developed a rigorous training program based on last year’s competition.

“Really, the success of this team comes from a direct reflection of their initiative, ownership, and hard work that they put into this, and they put a lot of work into this,” O’Neal said.

While the challenge normally takes place in the fall, it was delayed to the spring due to the government shutdown. O’Neal said Liberty and the local community have been valuable resources during training. They partnered with the 2nd Battalion, 317 Infantry Regiment in Lynchburg to get hands-on experience with handling military equipment and also coordinated with the Liberty Mountain Gun Club to run M17 pistol ranges.

“The help of this community and the support that we get from the school helps set us up for success,” he said.

Fetcho, who is studying criminal justice with a focus in strategic intelligence, said Army ROTC has trained him and Tonsing to be “capable and confident leaders that can accomplish mission sets.”

“The Ranger Challenge gave us the platform to be able to take the lessons that our Cadre taught us and put it into action,” Fetcho said. “Cadet Tonsing and I, with the help of various other cadets as well, put a lot of effort and focus into the creation of our training schedules and what we wanted to focus on. We prioritized frequency of training soldier skills because you become a master at something by doing it through repetition. It is awesome to see that our training methods work as well as our ability to get a group of people to fully focus on a goal and then achieve that goal.”

Tonsing, a pre-law student, added that the two biggest contributing factors to the team’s success are the quality of the team roster and the principle of “train how you fight,” which the Army stresses.

“The team we are blessed to be able to work with and train is absolutely top-notch, motivated to win, and continuously gets better every day,” Tonsing said. “The individual disciple, grit, physical fitness, and expertise of each of our team members has been beyond impressive to see as a leader. Each of these events that we were graded on, we trained over and over countless times leading up to the competition to ensure we executed perfectly in the moment of need.”

Fetcho said the hardest part of the competition was enduring physical and mental fatigue, but the team culture and dynamics helped push the cadets through it as they leaned on one another for support.

Both captains knew they were in the competition to represent Christ, and they carried that mission throughout their preparation and during the events.

“It reflects the exact mission of Liberty University itself, and it is so incredibly fulfilling to see in our own time the championing result of our leadership and training and development of our teams,” Tonsing said. “We do it all for Christ’s glory, and the whole brigade undoubtedly sees Christ’s light in us as we succeed.”

“We will continue to represent the Christan values of Liberty University because we want to show others who Christ is through these competitions and that our success isn’t our own, it’s God’s,” Fetcho added. “Our Ranger Challenge team is devoted to carrying out the mission of Training Champions for Christ and training Christian leaders to fill the ranks of the U.S. Army.”