The Rensselaer Air Force and Navy drill teams both outperformed other reserve office training program teams in the 23rd annual Cornell University Invitational Drill Competition.
The Cornell competition, the largest on the East Coast, recognizes excellence in team participation in marching formations, patriotism, swimming, and iron man events.
The RPI Air Force team captured third-place honors in the six-person squad basic performance out of a 27-team pool, and the Air Force color guard finished in the upper half of teams competing.
The RPI Navy teams earned positions in the top three positions in four by 100 iron man relay, four by 100 freestyle, and four-person crescendo relay swimming events.
“RPI did very well. It was a learning experience. We got to [practice] how a drill works. By the time we get to [our] drill meet, I think we’re going to show a lot of schools up,” said Janina Hill ’04.
Rensselaer’s participants slept on the floor at night and were involved in rigorous events from 5:30 am-11 pm on the first day and from 5:30 am-12 am on the second day of competition.
The Cornell competition is helpful in preparing RPI’s ROTC teams for upcoming competitions in the spring at Villanova and here at the Institute, said Major Steve Libby, commandant of the Air Force reserve office training program at RPI.
Libby added, “Overall, for the number of people we had ... we did very well.” Many of the schools in the competition had teams with 50 to 60 members, while RPI’s Air Force team had only 12 and Navy team had only 41.
The U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy-Annapolis, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and other university ROTC programs sent more than twenty teams to the two-day Cornell competition.
