Michigan City High School MCJROTC Earns Awards at Chicagoland Military Drill Competition

MCHS-MCJROTC-02-02-15The Michigan City High School (MCHS) Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (MCJROTC) earned awards at the highly competitive Chicagoland military drill meet held at the Forest View Education Center in Arlington Heights, IL on Saturday, January 31st. 23 schools from Indiana and Illinois competed in the event. MCHS earned 4th place in Unarmed Platoon and 5th place in Color Guard. Those units were commanded by Cadets Captain Cody Joseph and 2nd Lieutenant Quinton Dixon, respectively. Additionally, Cadet Captain Alex Wyman earned first place in individual competition out of 300 cadets. The 35 cadets on the team also competed in armed platoon, personnel inspection, unarmed exhibition and “B” Color Guard.

“This is probably the most competitive meet we will participate in this year,” said Senior Marine Instructor Major Tom McGrath. “The Navy schools use this as a qualifying meet to earn a place in their national meet in Orlando, Florida, so many of the Navy schools were at the top of their game. Still, our cadets really held their own, and were competitive in most of the other events where we did not place.”

Marine Instructor Master Sergeant Jeff Benak was pleased with the effort of the cadets at this drill meet and their work ethic throughout the year. “It takes much dedication to be at the school every morning at 5:45 am for practice. These cadets really want to represent Michigan City well everywhere we go. Michigan City impressed many people at this highly competitive meet today.”

The cadets will next travel to Indianapolis for the Pike High School meet on February 21st. “This will be another competitive meet, with us facing some of the same national-qualifying schools as we competed against today. I am confident our cadets are up to the challenge of improving on this meet and winning down at Pike,” said McGrath.