Nease Navy JROTC’s varsity drill team travelled to Atlanta this past weekend to take on 15 of the best NJROTC programs in North Georgia and the team came away victorious, taking home the overall academic, athletic and drill championship held at Sprayberry High School.
In addition to claiming the overall championship trophy, Nease picked up 6 of 12 first place event trophies for Personnel Inspection, Overall Drill, Armed Exhibition, Overall Athletics, Push Ups and Sit Ups.
“We had never competed in this championship before and wanted to go against the best,” said cadet Ethan Wissel, commander of the winning Armed Exhibition team. “The Atlanta area schools gave us their best shot, but we came out standing in the end.”
Several cadets took home individual medals for exceptional performance in athletics. Rachael Tawdrous, Isabelle Rivera, Teagen Pettit and Emmelie Neff earned top honors for Female Situps. Pettit, Amber Amber Vidler, Anna Hampton and Yuan Tian garnered top medals in Female Pushups. Brogan Donnelly, Brody Mongon, Reef Hamilton and Nate Fagen placed first and fourth in Male Situps, and Juan Castillo took home fourth in Male Pushups. This marks two consecutive competitions where Donnelly has won first place medal in Situps, averaging 306 each time.
“We made a few errors in drill, but the teams battled throughout,” said battalion commander Lindy Gostage. “I truly believe our best is yet to come.”
For five years running, Nease has won the North Florida and state of Georgia Drill championships and will be eyeing a sixth when they compete in Douglas, Georgia on March 7 at the Area-12 Championships.
Other top schools in the competition were North Cobb HS (2nd), Hillgrove HS (3rd), Luella HS (4th) and Duluth HS (5th).
