For the past six years, Nease NJROTC’s 40-person drill team has competed at the Terry Parker Sanctioned Drill Meet in Jacksonville. This year marks the sixth straight year the team has returned to Ponte Vedra with the competition’s top prize.
Along with six consecutive Mandarin Drill Meet victories, Nease has dominated the NJROTC drill landscape in Northern Florida since 2013. Nease will compete in March 2019 at the Area-12 Florida-Georgia State Championships. Here, the team will be seeking a fifth consecutive title and trip to the Navy National Championships in April.
“Every JROTC program has a reputation,” Cadet Command Master Chief Peyton Gustafson said. “For some it’s academics, orienteering or marksmanship. But for Nease it’s drill.”
Drill meet championships include a series of 11 individual events including Unarmed and Armed Marching, Color Guard, Personnel Inspection, Academics, Pushups, Sit-ups and Running Relays. Points awarded in each event are combined to determine the day’s overall winner.
This year, Nease won first place in Personnel Inspection, Academics, Athletics Overall, Sit-ups and both the 16x100 Relay and 8x220 Relay. They also were second in Drill Overall, Color Guard, Unarmed Exhibition Drill, Armed Basic Drill and Pushups.
Several cadets took home individual medals. Teagen Pettit, Elizabeth Villalba and Isabella Rivera swept female sit-ups with first-, second- and third-place finishes. Nate Fagen and Thomas Olinger finished first and second in male sit-ups. Erin Sass and Pettit won second and third in female pushups, and Chris Oliver finished third in male pushups. Pettit’s 335 sit-ups were a personal record.
“Today gets us one step closer to the prize,” Cadet Battalion Commander Erin Sass said. “The road to the Navy National Championship only gets tougher with each competition.”
Nease is currently the No. 1 ranked NJROTC drill team in Area 12, which includes 59 programs in Northern Florida and Georgia. Nease has won the Area-12 Drill Championship each of the past four years. The team will seek to make it five in a row March 2 in Douglas, Georgia, where the best 16 schools in Area-12 will vie for top honors and the right to compete at the Navy National Drill Championships in April.
“Our seniors are truly leading from the front,” Naval Science Instructor Master Chief Duane Spears said. “The motivation, energy and enthusiasm of this group is unlike any I’ve seen.”
Other top schools in the competition were Coffee County High School in second place, Orange Park High School in third place, Cross Creek High School in fourth place and Middleburg High School in fifth place.
