The Army Alpine Ski Team participated in their last Atlantic Highland’s Conference league race for the season at Hunter Mt, NY. Both the mens and women’s teams qualified for Regionals. This is extremely significant for the women’s team who have two of three racers (CDTs Paulo and Nelson) that are brand new to ski racing this year. The women and men compiled 4th place finishes this weekend in Slalom (SL). Individually for the women, CDT Sophia Grohs (‘19) finished a strong 8th in both races; CDT Blaise Paulo ’18 finished in 17th and 19th finishes while CDT Maddie Nelson finished 23rd of 32 racers. For the men, CDT Josh Ische ’16, in his last season, finished in 8th and 9th place; CDT Arnye Riley ’17 finished in 13th and 14th place; CDTs Will Mueser and Jack Young finished with a 23rd and 28th respectively of over 60 racers competing. Notable of this race, was the Alumni race with the Atlantic Highlands Conference hosts annually. Army had a great turnout of former members to include MG (Ret) Todd Ostheller ’80, Mike Anthony and Jack McDonald (both ’81), MAJ (Ret) Bob Ryan ’82, Peter Thimm ’83, COL (Ret) William Sternhagen ’84, and John Gilmore ’10. The Army Alumni ran away with the team title; John Gilmore placed 3rd, Jack McDonald placed 5th, Mike Anthony placed 6th, and Pete Thimm placed 7th.

The Army West Point Nordic Skiing team participated in the Clarkson Carnival Nordic Races at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, NY. The event, part of the ECSC (Eastern Collegiate Ski Conference) season, consisted of two days of Nordic racing. Saturday’s races were skate/freestyle 7.7K competitions, while on Sunday, the participants skied those same 7.7K in the classic Nordic style. CDT Joshua Bassette (Team Captain) secured the highest finishes for the team, completing the Saturday skate race in 23:13 and the Sunday classic race in 24:23; these finishes earned him 6th place in both races, in a field of over 50 skiers. For the West Point men, the next fastest skier was CDT Keith Basnett, who finished at position 40 in the skate race with a time of 30:30, and 41st in the classic race with a time of 50:59.

Closing out the men’s field on Saturday, at positions 51-54 respectively, CDT Spencer Read ’16 with a time of 35:37; CDT Erik Hegeman ’16 finished in 42:41; CDT Pete Zeidler ’16 finished in 50:59; and CDT Preston Bentley ’17 finished in at 1:03:55. On Sunday in the men’s classic race, positions were slightly scrambled: coming in at 45th, CDT Read clocked a time of 40:10; CDT Zeidler finished at position 46 with a time of 41:50; CDT Hegeman came in 47th at 43:58; and CDT Bentley finished in 48th with a time of 44:46. The Army West Point Nordic women faced a field of approximately 40 skiers, and turned in solid results. Saturday, in the skate race, CDT Mimi Mejia finished in 34th place with a race time of 39:02; CDT Emily Beecher finished her skate race in 40th place with a time of 45:48. On Sunday, skiing classic style, CDT Mejia finished with a time of 38:36, to place 21st; CDT Beecher came in at 33rd place with a race time of 45:34.

The men on the Army West Point Fencing team travelled to Yeshiva University in New York, NY, to compete in a MAAC Conference dual where they emerged victoriously. They finished the day at 3-2 defeating Yeshiva by a score of 14-13, while also defeating conference rivals Swarthmore College (21-6) and College of NJ (16-11). The men were defeated by nationally ranked DIV I New Jersey Institute of Technology by a score of 7-20 and nationally ranked DIV II Stevens Institute of Technology 6-21. The Sabre Weapon Squad led the day and finished first place overall with a 4-1 record. CDT Blake Gordon continued his sweep of his opponents, racking up 12 wins and only 3 losses. CDT Aaron Mellstrom led the Epee Weapon Squad with a record of 10-5, while CDT Josh Qualls finished the competition at 9-4.

The Army West Point Bowling team had its own Super Bowling tournament at Knob Hill County Lanes in Manalapan, NJ. Led by CDT Allison Setter, the USMA Women’s team won the women’s division for this Eastern Intercollegiate Bowling Conference Tournament. CDT Braetana Roy provided a team high of 864 points. CDTS Mariah Foster, Paige Vallejos, and Elizabeth Challenger all performed well to secure a win for the team. The men’s team came in sixth overall. CDT Louis Kappner finished 20th out of 50 bowlers with a team high score of 1081 points. The bowling team finished the season strong and look to improve their performance for next year.

The Army West Point Men’s Volleyball team hosted a tournament at home. After falling in the first match 2-1 to Rochester Technology Institute, Army proceeded to win the next five matches to finish the day 5-1. Army finished the weekend seeded in first place in the division moving forward into the playoffs.

Ten members of the Army West Point Men’s Boxing Team travelled to Penn State University in State College, PA, for the Penn State University Invitational. There, the Army Boxers went 2-4 at Penn State’s home show. CDT Benny Ogando won by TKO, and CDT Nate Okyere-Bour won his bout as well.

Twelve members of the Army West Point Women’s Boxing Team travelled to Penn State University in State College, PA, for the Penn State University Invitational. The overall goal of the trip was to compete against female boxers from Penn State, Lock Haven University, and Shippensburg University with four scheduled female bouts as part of 25 bouts for the entire event. There were two sessions of fights, and each bout was in the novice level. The Army West Point Women’s Boxing team had one win by CDT Briana Dorsey ’19.

The Army West Point Water Polo team competed in the Webster Aquatics Centre Winter Games in Rochester, NY. This was the team’s first tournament of the second semester, and was the first opportunity that many players had to compete together. The team’s goals going into the tournament were to gain experience by playing against competitive masters teams while allowing the whole team a chance at play; this is in line with the overall goal of team development in the spring season. The team began the tournament with a tough match up against Kitchner Waterloo, a Canadian Masters team on Saturday morning. After gaining a lead the first half, thanks to the strong work of CDTs Shelby Lee, Leonid Milman, and Jeff Stark; the team fell behind in the second half and eventually suffered an 8-10 loss. In the second game, after an hour break, the Army team faced off against the Hamilton Masters team. Despite the efforts of CDT Lee as attacker and CDT Thomas Matty in whole set, the team suffered another disappointing loss. After taking a break for lunch and recalibrating, the team returned to the competition for their third game of the day against Rochester Men. After a strong start by the usual starting players, the Army team was able to let them take a break, and the rest of the team was able to get some playtime. CDT Patrick Cowley led the team from whole set; CDT Halle Kotchman continued her perfect 5-meter goal ratio for an easy win. In their last match-up of the day, the team faced off against a small squad from the University of Rochester. Once again, the whole team was able to contribute to the blowout victory, and everyone gained valuable game experience.

Last fall, 16 West Point cadets signed up for an elective on counterterrorism and created a Facebook page to appeal to young Muslims thinking about joining the so-called Islamic State. The cadets aimed to persuade those tempted by the terrorist cause to see “jihad” as a struggle, but not the violent one that groups such as the Islamic State promote. For their project to succeed, the cadets knew, they would have to learn more about the faith and build a social media platform that reserved judgment even on those who expressed admiration for committed terrorists.

And there was no way they could let on that West Point cadets had engineered the page and its related Twitter feed, YouTube channel and website. “If individuals went (to) the website and knew 16 cadets from the U.S. Military Academy were behind it, I think it would lose a lot of its credibility,” said Lt. Col. Bryan Price, the cadets’ professor. On Tuesday (Feb. 2), the West Point project took second place in an international contest for college students on combating terrorism online sponsored by the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, Facebook and EdVenture Partners, a business that connects industry to colleges. Read More

Three years into a program for building cyber proficiency in service academy midshipmen and cadets, the annual CyberStakes competition has proven its worth as an important learning tool for these high-tech skills, a senior Defense Department official said. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched the competition as a pilot program in 2014, and this year transitioned its sponsorship to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which expanded the program’s scope. DoD hosted the event Feb. 5-7 at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh.

Each service academy sent its best students: 14 from the U.S. Air Force Academy, 14 from the U.S. Military Academy, 14 from the U.S. Naval Academy and 10 from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. A team of four active-duty members of a cyber protection brigade also participated for the first time. The U.S. Military Academy won 35 -- 15 gold, 12 silver and eight bronze medals. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy won 20 -- three gold, six silver and 11 bronze medals. The U.S. Air Force Academy won 19 -- two gold, seven silver and 10 bronze. The U.S. Naval Academy won 18 -- eight gold, seven silver and three bronze. The cyber protection team won four gold medals. Read More

WEST POINT, NY - Junior goaltender Parker Gahagen was named the Travel Team USA Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week after a 1-1 weekend at Robert Morris. Gahagen continued his strong play for Army West Point, leading the Black Knights to a weekend split against conference-leading Robert Morris. He stopped a total of 82 shots while allowing just three goals in two games against the league's top scoring offense. Gahagen lowered his GAA to 2.29 and raised his save percentage to 0.930, ranking him top-five in the conference. He has not allowed more than two goals in nine of his last 10 starts between the pipes. He stopped 39 shots in Friday night's win over the Colonials and pushed aside a season high 43 shots on Saturday night. Read More

DFL faculty (German Section) and members of the USMA Color Guard attended the 56th Quadrille Ball in New York City (Manhattan) at the Pierre Hotel. The Quadrille Ball is a White Tie Benefit Ball to support the Germanistic Society of America's Scholarship Fund for the Exchange of American and German Students. Faculty of the USMA German Section (DFL) have been honored guests for many years and continue to strengthen ties between DFL and the Germanistic Society of America in New York City.

The Deputy G6 and CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer, Mr. Quinzel Chestnut) of the Cyber Center of Excellence, Fort Gordon GA, conducted a site visit to USMA. The day of meetings and information exchange included discussions with Director NEC, Mr Scullion, USMA Chief Information Officer (LTC Teague) and his Deputy of IETD (Don Cantwell), COL Kobylski (D/Math representing current USMA KM efforts), ACI (Dep Dir, Dr. Maymi, Researcher MAJ Bundt, IT Lead Mr. Dean). Mr. Chestnut was most interested in establishing lines of communication between CCoE and USMA's ACI and CRC at the institutional support level (how CRC and ACI interact with NEC and higher to support education and training) and potentially sharing lessons learned between the organizations.

Mr. Chestnut provided information to the ACI and NEC that contributes to the hand-off process ACI is already pursuing with DIA about the SCIF in Taylor Hall. Mr Chestnut demonstrated to Mr. Scullion, LTC Teague, and Mr. Cantwell the newest set of free-to-USMA and provided-by-NETCOM electronic staff routing capability called http://www.netcom.army.mil/Projects/GEARS.aspx. He also demonstrated it to COL Kobylski, who had been previously unaware of NETCOM's efforts and availability of the capability. CRC and ACI shared valuable insights in ways to improve regulations and other controlling documents to account for the education-based requirements of the technology centric commands (e.g., educational robots and micro controllers on networks, offensive cyber operations classes and infrastructures purely in the unclass realm). Mr. Chestnut will be taking those insights back to CCoE as well as to other forums where there may be lessons learned USMA can absorb. This trip was worthwhile for CCOE, CRC, and ACI, with ancillary but deliberate discussions about Knowledge Management at the institutional level.

The Department of English and Philosophy hosted its fifth Works in Progress Colloquium in the Cullum Hall Memorial Room. Dr. Cassandra Nelson led the discussion with her piece, “Possessed of a Selfness, a Teeming Soul: Terrorism, Technology, and Transcendence in Don DeLillo’s Mao II.” In it, she considered the way in which technology, belief, and identity are closely linked in Don DeLillo’s fiction, particularly in relation to the creation of material text versus Mass Media. The presentation sparked an extended discussion about what DeLillo refers to as a “zero-sum game” in which, “what terrorists gain, novelists lose.

Class of 2016 chemistry majors from CH487, Advanced Chemistry Laboratory, under supervision, collected soil and water samples from several USMA Firing Ranges. The cadets will analyze the samples they collected for inorganic (metal) content and residual organic materials (energetic material decomposition products) as one of their projects in CH487. Samples of soil were collected from Ranges 5, 11, 11B, and 12 and water samples were collected from the creek running through Range 11 and the intersection of Zint’s Brook and Popolopen Creek. Zint’s Brook will contain run-off materials from the Impact Area and feeds into Popolopen Creek. The collection was conducted in support of and coordinated with the USMA Range Control Office and the results will be reported to USMA Range Control personnel and USMA Environmental Office personnel. CH487 is the chemistry program capstone course in which the cadets design and conduct their own experiments in order to answer a specific question posed by the course director, other faculty, or outside agencies.

The Army Alpine Ski Team hosted the annual Army-Navy‬ Alpine Ski Race at Victor Constant Ski Slope on President’s Day. Each team competitor raced two runs of Giant Slalom (GS) and two runs of Slalom (SL) on the Rod Smith trail. For the second time time in three years the Cadets out-shredded the Mids. The top three men’s GS racers were Cadets Aryne Riley, Logan Trust and Gavin Felch 2019. The top Army‬ women’s GS and SL racer was Cadet Sophia Grohs. The top Army men’s SL racers were Cadets Patrick Kearney, Aryne Riley and Gavin Felch. First year racers, Cadets Blaise Paulo, Will Mueser and Jack Young made great progress throughout the year and highlighted their new-found skills by ripping fast and smooth runs against their Navy opponents. Both teams qualified in their respective conferences for Regionals and anticipate shredding against each other once again at Seven Springs Ski Resort, PA this coming weekend.

Photo courtesy of LTC Kasker/ USMA Public Affairs

CPT Mark Bergman, CPT Ben Griffin, and Dr. Amanda Boczar led the first trivia night of 2016 last month in the Firstie Club. Cadet turnout was fantastic, with over 150 participants and 21 different teams. The result was a fierce competition ending in a three-way tie and a sudden-death overtime question based on the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. The losing teams are already studying for the next trivia night, tentatively scheduled for late February.

USMA Library’s Special Collections and Archives Staff hosted an exhibit on the Mexican American War and the Punitive Expedition for the 185 Cadets enrolled in EN302S (Advanced Composition through Culture--Mexico). The exhibit contained archived letters, memoirs, and photographs from our military encounters with Mexico, to include hand-drawn maps from the Mexican American War, personal letters from Lieutenant Patton, first-hand accounts of West Point graduates as they pursued Pancho Villa, and several other artifacts. This display allowed cadets to witness the military tradition of wartime correspondence and journaling.

The West Point mock trial team, an academic team sponsored by the Department of Law, traveled to Central Islip, New York for the Regional tournament. Mock trial forces students both to hone arguments based on evidence as well as perfect the techniques required to present evidence in a courtroom. The West Point team performed well competing against experienced squads from Columbia, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Queensboro with victories in multiple rounds.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - With one session of the Patriot League Championships complete, the Army West Point women's swimming and diving team ranks tied for second with 64 points alongside Boston University. Army kicked-off the championships with an Academy record in the 200 medley relay. Kelly Hamilton, Jess Fabrizio, Molly Mucciarone and Bailey Smith were second with a time of 1:42.10, just two hundredths off of the previous record. The Black Knights were fourth in the 800 free relay. Shannon Rogers, Monica Sowinski, Jess Burkett and Sabrina Mortell touched the wall in 7:24.78 to set a new Academy record, besting the previous standard by four seconds.

The Army West Point men's swimming and diving team ranks tied for fourth with 79 points alongside Loyola. Army was second in the 200 medley relay when Josh Sembrano, Joseph Daniels, Austin Kong and Brandon McCredie touched the wall in 1:28.99. The Black Knights placed third in the 800 free relay. Evin Rude, Devin McCall, Jay Yang and Chris Szekely recorded an Academy record time of 6:33.27, over three seconds better than the previous standard. On the three-meter, Jake Davies and Edward Emery placed 10th and 11th, respectively. Davies earned a career-best 252.70 points in the final, while was 55.6 points higher than his previous best score. Emery notched a score of 249.75 which was also a career-high and 32.93 above his previous best score.

Army will be back in action Thursday through Saturday for the rest of the Patriot League Championships.