Norwich claims challenge title

"I really thought this year was an amazing year for it. I saw a lot of heart, I saw a lot of people dig deep and I saw a lot of character being built out there," said Capt. Todd Tedeschi as he recalls the extreme effort put forth by all of this year's Recon Challenge competitors. 

On March 27, the Semper Fidelis Society of Norwich University put on the Recon Challenge, an event consisting of many physically challenging events such as a ruck run, a mile-and-a-half litter carry with stretchers and a mile-long swim, according to Tedeschi, the Marine officer instructor of the Norwich Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Tedeschi said Recon challenge was amped up this year, making it more difficult but also keeping it safe. Events were added, such as a Combat Fitness Test and the litter carry, and the swimming event and ruck run were made substantially longer.

"Last year, the first team across the line was I think three hours and one minute," Tedeschi said. "This year, I think it was about an hour later."

With such a challenging event, medical support was provided by NUEMS and all of the competitors had to be briefed on the courses they were to take and told that this challenge was going to be very physical, according to Tedeschi.

"Our reputation out there is that this is one of the premier challenges in the United States," Tedeschi said. "Any challenge that takes five to six hours to complete really speaks volumes of it."

According to a member of the Semper Fidelis society, Zachary Shultis, a 19-year-old sophomore history major from Long Valley, N.J., all of the Semper Fidelis society was involved in coordinating the event to make sure everything ran smoothly. Safety was a key concern. 

"We had meetings and we had to come up with different obstacles and things that we wanted to do." Shultis said. "We had to find volunteers and make sure that all the areas were good to go. We had to drive up and make sure that the road course for the ruck march wasn't too muddy and we had to make sure the obstacle course was safe."

During the obstacle course, competitors had to jump over logs, low crawl through sand pits, jump over a high wall and climb a rope, which has a lot of safety risk involved, according to Shultis.

"I had a few volunteers, I think I had about six or eight," Shultis said. "I had to make sure they were watching, making sure everyone was safe and all the competitors were doing each event correctly and in a safe manner so that no one got hurt."

According to Capt. Tedeschi, the event was meant to be fun and challenging, but it was also important that the Semper Fidelis Society honor the people who have made sacrifices for the country.

"Especially one of our previous students in the Army having that accident in Afghanistan," Tedeschi said. "We thought, ‘What better choices be made than to give 10 percent or whatever we could afford to the Wounded Warriors Fund,' and that's where we came up with over $500 to give to a charity."

For being such a large event, the costs are minimal due to the fact that the Semper Fidelis Society used all of the resources that were available to it, according to Tedeschi.

"The 70 volunteers came from us," Tedeschi said. "The only things that cost on the front end were the T-shirts, the medals and the food that we had to buy from Sodexo, but we recoup that after the individuals each pay their competitors fee."

With all of the money that comes in, the Marine Corps department of the N.R.O.T.C. Program is able to pay for the Marine Corps Mess Night, training and whatever other local events the company decides to participate in, according to Tedeschi.

The effort put forth by all of the competitors was not surprising to Tedeschi, but he said it was reassuring to see how well everyone performed, especially during the mile-and-a-half litter carry, which was his favorite event.

"Within the naval battalion, we train hard," Tedeschi said. "It's good to see the Army, it was great to see some Air Force out there."

According to Tedeschi, the Recon Challenge is fun for many different age groups. Also, five schools from around New England participated in the event. Teams from the University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire, University of Maine, Boston University and Maine Maritime Academy all came from their schools for a chance to win the Recon Challenge. 

"This year was my fourth win," said Renat Fatkulin, a 21-year-old senior international studies and Spanish double major from Torrington, Conn. "This year it was me, Dan Valdo, Peter Bue and Kevin Durgin, all juniors."

According to Fatkulin, his team has won the Recon Challenge for four years. He is the only person to win the challenge four years in a row, and even last year he was the only person to win three years in a row. For the 10 years that the challenge has been running, the group formally know as SEAL platoon, having been disbanded at the beginning of this year, has won every single year.

"They did a really good job this year," Fatkulin said. "This year was harder because it was longer. We finished in 3 hours and 58 minutes; last year when I did it with all of the seniors that graduated, we did it in under three hours."

With all of the members of the team competing in a 100-mile snow shoe race a few short weeks before Recon Challenge, they didn't have much time to get ready and were only able to train for about two weeks, according to Fatkulin.

Alex Crosby, a 19-year-old freshman studies of war and peace major from Osterville, Mass., said that he enjoyed his time competing in Recon Challenge and that it was challenging but nothing was  impossible.

"My favorite part was probably finishing it," Crosby said. "I'm definitely looking forward to it next year."

According to Crosby, he loves a good physical challenge. His team for this challenge consisted of himself and three of his rook buddies. Their team name was All 4-1 because they are all members of cadet training company four, first platoon. 

"I just like the challenge," Crosby said. "A bunch of my rook buddies and I are doing a bunch of other challenges this year, like Spartan Race and a lot of triathlons."

According to Tedeschi, the Recon Challenge brings out a lot of heart in everyone and he was very happy to know that everything ran as smoothly as it did this year.

"I am very proud to be here," Tedeschi said. "I think the Semper Fidelis Society did an amazing job this year."