Cadets with Guard ties lead Waynesville JROTC team to national runner-up finish

Waynesville High School JROTC Raider Jesslyn Clark works her way through a low crawl during an event at the 2011 Raider National Championships in Molena, Ga. Clark, daughter of Missouri National Guardsman, Lt. Col. Amy Clark, earned individual honors as the nation's top female Raider and co-captained the mixed team to a second-place overall finish.
(Photo by Sgt. Steven Crabtree)

By Matthew J. Wilson
ngmo.pao@us.army.mil

MOLENA, Ga. - Members of the Waynesville High School JROTC Raiders with ties to the Missouri National Guard recently helped their team take second overall and garner individual honors in the mixed division of the 2011 Raider National Championships.

Seniors Brandon Bowman, a private first class in the Missouri Guard, and Jesslyn Clark, daughter of Missouri Guardsman, Lt. Col. Amy Clark, captained the co-ed team to a runner-up finish in the five-event competition at the Gerald Lawhorn Boy Scout Camp. Raiders are elite members of JROTC that compete in both mentally and physically challenging events within the state and the country. It was the first time the Waynesville team had competed in the national event.

"It was pretty rewarding," Bowman said of the experience. "We were aiming for first, but for our first time, second place is not bad at all. It's pretty exciting to know that we could take second our first try. We'll take first next year."

Jesslyn added individual accolades as the best female Raider in the country, as did her teammate, senior Jacob Bautista, who earned a spot as the best male Raider.

"I am very proud of our two cadets for becoming the overall best Raiders in the nation," said Bowman, who lives in St. Robert. "I don't think anyone else was expecting the two best Raiders to be on the same team and from the same school."

The individual, timed competition involved a cross-country run of about two miles that included obstacles and debris on the path. Competitors then performed a low-crawl for 20 yards before they climbed over an 8-foot vertical wall. Their time stopped once their feet hit on the other side of the wall.

"Winning the ultimate raider was the best feeling I've ever had in my life - I'll never forget that day," said Jesslyn, who lives in Waynesville. "As a team, it was fantastic just to be runner up our first time going - that was an amazing feeling. We'd never been to that competition and we didn't know what to expect, so bringing home second place was awesome. We were told you can't win if it's your first time going, but we almost proved them wrong"

Jesslyn's time of 11 minutes, 30 seconds was about two minutes faster than the second-place finisher. Because the event was run in heats, Jesslyn didn't know at the time how well she had done.

"I didn't know if that was good or bad," she said. "I just ran as fast I could for two miles."

It wasn't until her junior year that Jesslyn learned about the competition and she said she's worked hard from that moment on to prepare for it.

"I practiced every day on my own - I just ran all through Waynesville," she said. "I really wanted to be the best national Raider."

The team also made a commitment to be successful as it trained two hours each day after school for more than a year.

"We practiced from July until the last day before we left," Jesslyn said. "It was amazing - it was a great thing."

Bowman called the training vigorous. It involved plenty of push-ups, sit-ups, cross-country running, abdominal workouts, and carrying rescue litters filled with sand bags for miles.

Bautista was a surprise individual champion as he was the alternate on his own team, but got the nod to compete after junior Steven Crabtree Jr., son of Missouri Guard Sgt. Steve Crabtree, aggravated a prior injury during the team competitions.

A total of 55 teams competed at the national championship in the male, female or mixed divisions. Waynesville only competed in the mixed division with about 23 other schools. Each mixed team consisted of 10 people with at least four females competing in each event. Each individual's result was added to determine a team result.

The Waynesville mixed team finished in the top six of all five events, including wins in the Army Physical Fitness Test and the Gauntlet.

"That showed how hard we worked - against the whole nation we didn't finish worse than sixth," Bowman said.

The team also was second in the cross-country litter carry, third in a 5-kilometer run and sixth in the one-rope bridge competition.

The mixed division winner was a familiar foe in Sedalia Smith-Cotton. In fact, the Waynesville Raiders had recently defeated the Smith-Cotton team in Sedalia during an in-state competition.

"We beat them on their own turf and never had beaten them before," Jesslyn said. "We beat them in every event - that was awesome.
"But they've been to Raider Nationals before and they knew what to expect there."

Although she currently isn't leaning toward joining the Guard, Jesslyn said she plans to go through ROTC while pursuing a criminal justice degree from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Once she graduates, she plans to follow in her mother's footsteps and join the Army on the active side as an officer. She hopes to branch military intelligence.

Bowman has been in the Guard little more than three months after being recruited by Master Sgt. Gregory Polk, the Missouri Guard's Fort Leonard Wood recruiter. Currently a member of Company F, of the Recruitment sustainment Program in Jefferson City, Bowman will attend basic training this summer at Fort Leonard Wood. His military occupational specialty is combat engineer.

He said he was proud to have co-captained the team.

"It means a lot to be the captain of a team that was second in the nation," Bowman said. "The success exemplifies the camaraderie that we have and how we cooperated as team and didn't argue at all. Everyone pushed themselves for something that we trained so hard for."

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please visit www.moguard.com and our social media sites: www.facebook.com/Missouri.National.Guard; www.twitter.com/Missouri_NG; www.youtube.com/MoNationalGuard; www.myspace.com/missouri_ng; www.flickr.com/photos/missouriguard; www.moguard.com/blog

Waynesville High School JROTC Raider Steven Crabtree competes in the one-rope bridge team event during the 2011 Raider National Championships in Molena, Ga.
(Photo by Sgt. Steven Crabtree)

Waynesville High School JROTC Raiders pose with their trophies earned at the 2011 Raider National Championships in Molena, Ga.
(Photo by Sgt. Steven Crabtree)