Oak Harbor High School Wildcat Battalion protected its home turf by winning six events at the Northwest Drill and Rifle Conference Olympic Division competition Saturday, Jan. 16.
The OHHS NJROTC unit hosted five others schools and nearly 400 competitors from all services in the latest divisional meet.
The Wildcats collected three firsts in team competition, with color guard No. 2 and both rifle teams (sporter and precision) winning.
In individual action, Oak Harbor’s Nathan Larsen (armed team commander), Callie Nuttall (physical strength, female) and Dylan Angell and Jacob Harris (dual armed exhibition drill) finished first.
Three Wildcat teams finished second (unarmed drill, armed drill and physical strength No. 2); while two nabbed fourth (color guard No. 1 and physical strength No. 2).
Finishing second among individuals were Ria Bains (unarmed drill commander), Chante Powell (physical strength, female) and Jose Cabigting (physical strength, male).
Placing fourth were Samantha Olson (unarmed drill down), Larsen and Jon Francisco (dual armed exhibition drill), Alex Hartley and Noel Pangilinan (dual unarmed exhibition drill) and Kegan Snell (physical strength, male).
Hartley also picked up a sixth (physical strength, male), and Taylor Kesler added an eighth (physical strength, female).
The shooting teams were dominant.
In sporter, Oak Harbor placed five in the top 10, led by Micah Moss in second. Steven Richards was fourth, Mia Gehrmann fifth, Julia Flake sixth and Aaron Martinez 10th.
Austin McBride, Elena Flake, Marjorie Rouse and Montana Koslowski finished 2-3-4-5 in precision.
The shooters also competed at the Washington State Open Championships Sunday as the club team S-Cubed.
Not all final results are in, according to coach Dave Goodman, but Richards and Gehrmann posted excellent scores and have a good chance of winning the sporter male and female individual titles.
In regard to Saturday’s ROTC competition, Chief William Thiel said, “Overall, the drill meet went very well.”
He lauded the help of the many volunteers who assisted with event, including parents, active duty sailors from NAS Whidbey; Air Force recruiting; University of New Mexico ROTC; Naval Hospital Oak Harbor; Aviation Survival Training Center; Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit, Whidbey Island; MTOC-10; NOPF; CPRW-10 and VAQ-131.
(Left: Mia Gehrmann takes a moment to focus before competing Saturday. Below, Elena Flake, left, and Austin McBride take aim. Photos by Jim Waller.)
