Extracurricular Clubs
Triathlon:
- On October 24-27, Eleven cadets traveled to Aus-tin, TX to compete in the IronMan 70.3 Collegiate National Championships
- The West Point Team swept the Collegiate divi-sion with 1st place male Dylan Morgan ‘16, 1st place female Cat Sedy ‘16, Men’s Team National Champions, Women’s Team Na-tional Champions, and overall Team National Champions
- All four cadets, Dylan Morgan ‘16, Cat Sedy ‘16, Angelica Dickson ‘ 16 and Jacob Slife ‘18, qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Champions in 2015
- Dylan Morgan was 10th overall in the entire race and the fastest amateur athlete with a collegiate championship record time of 4 hours and 8 minutes to complete the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and half-marathon
- For five of the eleven cadets, this was their first time competing at the half-ironman distance
- This is the third consecutive 70.3 national championship for the team under Head Coach Ian O’brien, and the third consecutive World Championship qualification for CDTs Morgan and Sedy
- In addition to the cadet athletes, the OIC of the team, LTC Ken Allen, competed in the event and was 9th out of 266 men in the 40-44 year old age group division
- Although not pictured, General Odierno gave a COSA coin to Cadets Sedy and Morgan for their Ironman sweep and continued triumphs with the Triathlon team
- On November 1st-3rd, The West Point Triathlon team sent one cadet, Mackenzie Williams ‘18, to compete in the inaugural NCAA Women’s Na-tional Championships
- Because triathlon is an emerging women’s sport under NCAA, athletes were allowed to compete in the championship regardless of the NCAA status of their program provided they met the requirements as collegiate athletes and, based on their resume, could make the field start list
- In her first collegiate race, and first draft-legal event in over a year and a half since racing as a junior elite, Mackenzie finished in the top half of the field within a couple of minutes of the podium, and right alongsideNavy’s top three women
- UCLA took first and third place, Penn State took second, Georgia Tech took fourth and the University of California Santa Barbara was fifth
- The race was an excellent experience for CDT Williams and she is expected to dominate the field in future events as she returns to form in draft-legal rac-ing
- The next draft-legal event for the team will be the elite developmental race in March where West Point will bring a full complement of three men and three women; this is closely followed by the USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals in April
Orienteering:
- On October 25-26, the West Point Orienteering Team traveled to Sa-lem, New York in order to take part in a meet put on by the Hudson Valley Orienteering Association
- Team members ran up to 19km of course over the rocky, wooded hills in Salem
- The terrain closely resembles that of West Point
- Overall the team performed admirably at this second-to-last event of the orienteering season
Team Handball:
- The Men’s Handball team took a trip down to Salinas, Puerto Rico to compete in the International Handball Fed-eration cup
- After four days of group play, where games were played against Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico, Team USA advanced to the finals for the first time in the team’s history, but fell short to Canada in the gold medal match
- By outperforming their expectations, the USA Junior Team may be able to compete sometime in the near future in another international competition
- Cadet Cross was appointed as the captain of the team, and learned valuable tips to help the West Point Men’s Team Handball Club in order to compete at an even high level than before
Hobby Clubs
Paintball:
- On 26 Oct. the Tournament Paintball team competed in the first event of the NCPA (National Colligate Paintball Association) season at Playgrounds Paintball in Mantua Township, NJ
- The Tournament Paintball team competes in the NEIC (Northeastern Conference) of the NPCA, which consists of six teams: Tem-ple, Cornell, UCONN, Northeastern, Penn State and West Point
- The team arrived at approximately 0900 and began preparations for the first match against Cornell University
- The team had a slow start, losing the first few points, but then regrouped and scored six straight points, resulting in a 6-4 win for West Point against Cornell!
- The next match was against Temple, where the team scored the first point and then completed the match with a 6-4 win, securing a 2-0 undefeated re-cord in the conference and arguably first place
Chess Club:
- The West Point Chess Team had a great trip to the Air Force Academy for the U.S. Armed Forces Chess Open
- Our team competed against active and retired officers and enlisted personnel from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines; as well as cadets from the Air Force Academy
- Nick Oblak (CIC) won 1st overall with 5 wins and a draw
- Wes Loudon won 1st in the cadet category and tied for 5th over-all with Clifford Hodges
- Michael Huang tied for 12th overall
- Nick Oblak won 3rd place in the Blitz tournament and Nick and Wes, as a team, won the Bughouse tourna-ment
Academic Clubs
Debate (Model Arab League):
- On October 28-29th, 16 Cadets from the Model Arab League attended the National Council on US-Arab Relations Policymakers’ Conference at the Reagan Center in Washington, DC
- The Cadets were privileged to hear the latest thoughts of the most knowledgeable and influential US and Arab policymakers on the most pressing subjects of concern to the League of Arab States
- The most significant emerging topics of interest included:
- The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where current thought seems to indicate a dwindling of international and US support for Israel following the most recent Gaza war
- The Iranian nuclear deal in the offing, which the Saudi spokesman publicly welcomed with caution that Saudi Arabia would insist on the same deal for itself, guaranteeing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East if Iranian nuclear ambitions are accommodated
- Most pressingly the clear and present danger posed by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), which is “neither Islamic nor a state” and which, though alarming in the extreme presents more of an oppor-tunity than an existential threat: Never before have the US and Muslim states faced such a compel-ling common enemy, which could bring together Arabs, Turks, Iranians, Israelis and Americans against a common foe
- Success of the all of these issues depends on Muslim leadership and provides fascinating discourse for our Cadets preparing to engage in parliamentary debate with students from other schools representing other states of the Arab league in upcoming competitions
Debate:
- This past weekend, the Army Debate team travelled to Liberty University
- Army CW, comprised of cadets TJ Collins and Matt Watts (both members of the class of 2018), finished in 3rd place in the novice division
- Army HP, comprised of cadets Ian Holbrook and Kyle Paget (both members of the class of 2017), made it to the sweet 16
- Army BB, comprised of cadets Bryant and Barlow (both members of the class of 2016) also made it to the sweet 16 of the open varsity division
Chinese Club:
- On October 25th, ten members of the USMA Chinese Forum, led by First Class CDT Kaiwen Lin, visited with members of the Rutgers University Chinese Club
- The students and the cadets took the oppor-tunity to discuss each others’ respective lives at Rutgers and West Point, eat dinner to-gether, and attend a student-run talent show hosted by the Rutgers Chinese Club
- This experience allowed both the students and the cadets to gain a better under-standing of each other and the unique opportunities and challenges that Civilian Aca-demic Institutions and Service Academies present