Lehigh ROTC places first in 2022 Ranger Challenge

A team of cadets from Lehigh’s Steel Battalion took home first place out of 45 teams in the 2nd Freedom Brigade as part of the 2022 Ranger Challenge in October at Fort Dix Army Base.

The team’s first-place finish qualifies them to compete at the national level at the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition 2023, which will be held at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, in the spring. This is the third time the Steel Battalion has won the competition, as they took home first place in 2019 and 2020.

The team completed a high-speed Army Combat Fitness Test, a round-robin of events including land navigation, grenades, weapons assembly, rope bridge, tactical combat casualty care and tug of war. The event concluded with a six-mile tactical road march.

Christian Antry ’23 has competed in the Ranger Challenge all four years of his college career and is the only cadet in Lehigh’s program to win the competition three times in four years. This year, he served as the team’s captain.

He said he largely credits the team’s success to each member’s mental toughness and their ability to show up for each other.

"Our success was very much the product of ensuring that everybody believes that greatness isn't something that you strive to achieve, greatness is truly within, and you have to each and every day find greatness within you," Antry said. "The people on this team, the people to everybody's left and right, they all want to be great."

Out of the seven events, Lehigh was disqualified from the first as a result of a technicality in the rules.

"Even though that happened, our task and our purpose and our motivation to win the Ranger Challenge didn't change," Antry said. "A lot of people said this might have been the greatest Ranger Challenge performance in history because no team has ever won when they've been disqualified from an entire event."

Antry said when building the team, potential members are evaluated on their ability to complete tasks and work with others. Ultimately, 14 members were selected to compete.

The team started training for the 2022 Ranger Competition in November 2021. Antry said after placing fourth without the opportunity to compete at Sandhurst last year, they were determined to take back their winning title.

He said their physical training started with lifting and running. In August, they began to incorporate more military skills and events that directly correlated to the Ranger Challenge into their training, including tactical combat casualty care (taking care of an injured soldier), land navigation, weapons training and a six-mile timed ruck with a 35-pound backpack, rifle, gear and helmet.

In preparation for Sandhurst, Antry said the team will be completing two practices a day for two months leading up to Sandhurst that will include runs, rucks and field exercises, among other tasks. He said their focus is to keep the intensity high and build confidence mentally and physically.

"The events that unfolded at the Ranger Challenge were largely inspired by our mentality, our fortitude, our will to win, our training," Antry said. "But I believe it was destiny that allowed us to win that Ranger Challenge, and I believe it's our destiny to be the best military program in the nation, and that will be decided this spring at the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition."

Story by Christina Perrier