University students from the Army, Navy and Air Force joined together this past Saturday for their annual Tri-Service Competition. This year, the Air Force took home the trophy.
The competition began in the morning with the RJ Hess 5k where each service sent six members — two women and four men. The 5k was a memorial to honor aviation officer and First Lieutenant Robert Joseph “R.J.” Hess, who received his commission from the Army ROTC program at the University and died in Afghanistan in 2013.
Fourth-year Curry student John Romanello has participated in the Tri-Service Competition for the 3 previous years. As the Army’s S3 Battalion Operations Officer, this year Romanello was tasked with being the main organizer for the Army service. In addition to handling the physical training of the Army service for the competition, Romanello had other roles.
“I delegated captains, and we work with Liberty [University] because they are our sister school and told the battalion S3 at Liberty as well to delegate four events,” Romanello said. “We have tryouts for the teams.”
JT Luker, a third-year Engineering student and Platoon Commander in the Naval ROTC unit, was tasked to coordinate the competition for the Navy service.
“For all of the sports, each branch competes against both the other branches,” Luker said. “There is a total victory-tie-loss tally and the branch with the most points is the overall champion and gets possession of the trophy until the next year.”
This year, the sports that were chosen were soccer, volleyball, flag football and ultimate frisbee. Each branch played one another for each sport, so in total there were three games per event. The winner gained two points and a tie awarded both teams one point.
Romanello chose to play ultimate frisbee this year because he has played football in previous years. Luker has participated in frisbee and past years where he has created some of his favorite memories with his friends.
“One of my favorite memories is from first year during an ultimate frisbee game,” Luker said. “My good friend, Tyler White, threw a long distance hammer where the frisbee went out of bounds then curved back into my hands over an opponent.”
Besides hammer tosses and impressive catches, ROTC students have a lot of fun watching the events and cheering their friends on. Ayunda Ningtyas, first-year Engineering student and Army ROTC member, came to watch the competition.
“I didn’t participate but I spectated and was there supporting my friends,” Ningtyas said. “It was a fun and competitive environment. All cadets were supportive of each other at the conclusion of each game, and there was good sportsmanship all around.”
Each year, the Tri-Service trophy is passed to the current winner. In previous years, the Navy unit had always won in the past.
“Navy is the current reigning champion,” Luker said. “The competition is mostly a day of fun and camaraderie, but there is definitely some motivation to earn bragging rights, like the big Army-Navy football game every year.”
This year, however, the trophy went to the Air Force — a surprising change-up from the previous years in the competition.
“Air Force won the competition, and they came out of nowhere,” Ningtyas said. “This year they really showed up and we all have to commend them for that.”
While honoring fallen soldier RJ Hess and uniting together through sports, the ROTC community spent valuable moments together on Carr’s Hill Field in an event that helps to unite the branches as well as practice teamwork within one’s own branch.
“[It was] a great environment, and a lot easier to cheer everyone on because there was only one field so most everybody could watch all the events except for volleyball,” Romanello said. “[There were] great cheering sections.”
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