EASLEY — Easley High School Navy Junior Reserve Officer Corps (NJROTC) competed on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2017 at the annual Area Six orienteering championship held at Kings Mountain National Military Park.
Twenty-five NJROTC units from North and South Carolina entered this event hoping to get a chance to represent Area Six in the National Orienteering Championship that will be held this year in Apopka Florida. This competition consisted of 3 levels of difficulty, a 2.5 kilometer Yellow course just for freshmen, a 3.5 kilometer Orange course for intermediate runners and a 5.4 kilometer Green course for the well-seasoned runner, Easley placed in all three courses.
The cadets that competed in this event were Cadets Kelsie Hart, Dylan Henderson, Jason Jeanes, Billy Brown, Brady Beckman Drew Cole, Steven Chappell, Benjamin Prins, Thomas Swafford, Alexis Bader, Lily Addicott, Javan Dogan, Trevor Kelly, Shana Gilstrap, Clayton Downs, Heidi Jacome, Alexander Diffee, Allyn Hickey, Braydon Hill and Tyler Caron.
The results are as follows: On the Green course Billy Brown took 2nd, Brady Beckman took 3rd, Jason Jeanes took 5th and Dylan Henderson took 8th and on Brown Kelsie Hart took 3rd . On the Orange course Thomas Swafford took 4th, Jacob Cole took 5th and Steven Chappell took 8th. On the female Orange course Alexis Bader took 2nd. Clayton Downs took 8th on the male yellow course and on the female yellow course Lily Addicott took 1st and Shana Gilstrap took 3rd. The top 10 finishers on each course gets descending points for where they placed.
“The cadets worked hard to prepare for this event,” stated Chief Stauder. “We knew that the other 24 NJROTC units were going to be tough competitors, Easley had won this event for the last three years and the other units wanted to break that cycle.
“Easley’s cadets stood up for this challenge and won. I’m very proud of the team and this big accomplishment. Our next big event will be the Georgia Navigators Cup and then to the National meet in February,” he said.