The University of Illinois Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit won the overall University of Wisconsin-Madison’s NROTC Fall Invitational Drill Meet and Urban Adventure Race (UAR) title here, Sep. 23.
More than 200 midshipmen from five NROTC units competed in the one-day event on the UW-Madison campus. The Wisconsin Badger battalion planned and ran the entire invitational that has been an annual autumn event for 50 years.


“I'm proud of the battalion for planning and delivering such a great event for the 50th time,” said U. S. Navy Capt. John Barnett, professor of naval science and Wisconsin NROTC commanding officer.
“Each year we see excellent teamwork, pride in unit and service, and esprit de corps on the drill field and in athletic competition. This year our guests provided great competition...as they made new connections with those that they will serve with in the fleet in the coming years.”


The Fighting Illini NROTC Battalion, who last won the championship in 2021, grabbed the 2023 title by winning the Urban Adventure Race (UAR), Squad Drill, Unarmed Rifle, Flag Football and scoring well in the other eight competitions. The University of Wisconsin Badgers finished in second (winners of Pistol Marksmanship and Team Pull-Ups); The Marquette University Golden Eagles took third (winning Color Guard and Rifle Marksmanship). The Chicago Consortium (Northwestern, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois-Chicago, Loyola University) ended up in fourth (winners of Platoon Drill) and fifth place went to Miami University (winners of Jeopardy) who won the overall championship last year.


“We feel really good about the win,” said U. S. Marine Corps Capt. Jacob Bennett, the Marine Officer Instructor for Illinois.


“We finished second overall in two competitions last year, so it was good to finally pull out a win. I think this year the unit put more personal pride in this year’s invitational. It was all a credit to the students. ”
What makes the Wisconsin event unique is the Urban Adventure Race (UAR), a four-midshipman race around the university campus. The UAR averages between 6.2-miles and 9.2-miles depending on the weather and construction on the campus. The event includes exercise stations on the course. Each exercise station was worth points that were computed into the overall UAR time.


The invitational began early in the morning with the UAR around the university’s campus. The course began at the Department of Naval Science building and consisted of several exercise stations that included pull-ups, buddy carries up and down Bascom Hill, that looks over the Wisconsin State Capitol and center of town and several U. S. Marine Corps exercises out on Picnic Point on the shores of Lake Mendota. The competitors finished at the NROTC building.


In preparation for the drill competition, the teams spend months practicing precise facing movements in unison. The event was graded by Marine Corps Assistant Marine Officer Instructors (AMOI) from the participating units, who critiqued each movement on the drill field.
Barnett handed out awards and congratulated all the midshipmen to close out Wisconsin’s 50th event.


The NROTC midshipmen that participated at the Wisconsin NROTC Fall Invitational are among more than 4,000 students enrolled in the NROTC program at colleges and universities throughout the country.


The NROTC program is supported by Capt. Craig Mattingly, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), and his headquarters staff at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois.


NROTC was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically. The program also imbues in them the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as Naval and Marine Corps officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the Naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.
NSTC supports 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy’s Citizenship Development program. NSTC’s support also includes RTC, the Navy’s only boot camp, also at Naval Station Great Lakes; the NROTC program at more than 160 colleges and universities; OTC at Newport, Rhode Island; and the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.


For more information on NROTC visit: www.nrotc.navy.mil/


For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit: www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.


To read more stories and view images and videos, visit the NSTC DVIDs page at https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/NSTC.