PennMEC 2009

By MIDN 2/C Omar Amakhtari

Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) unit hosted its second annual Pennsylvania Military Excellence Competition (PennMEC) on September 13, 2008.  The second annual PennMEC allowed ROTC units from Pennsylvania to compete in a number of physical fitness events including track, swimming, a Marine Corps “Physical Fitness Test” (PFT), an 8k run, as well as a Basketball and Dodgeball tournament.  The four ROTC units who participated included the University of Pittsburgh’s Air Force ROTC, Carnegie Mellon University’s Navy ROTC, Penn State University’s Air Force ROTC, and Penn State University’s Navy ROTC.

NROTC Battalion Commander to CAPT Keith Bowman, the previous Commanding Officer of CMU’s NROTC unit. The event came to a close at 3:00pm, ending with a recognition ceremony and the presentation of the PennMEC trophy.

CMU NROTC placed first in, all but one of the track events, the basketball tournament, and the 8k, while Penn State NROTC came in first place for all of the swimming events as well as the Marine Corps PFT.  Pitt Air Force and Penn State Air Force, following surprising upsets in the Dodgeball tournament (by eliminating favorites CMU NROTC and PSU NAVY early on), battled it out in the end to see who would emerge as the Dodgeball tournament champion. Following a very emotional championship round, Penn State’s Air Force battalion claimed victory over Pitt’s battalion, claiming the title of PennMEC Dodgeball champions.

Carnegie Mellon University’s NROTC unit proved victorious edging out Penn State University’s NROTC by an incredibly close margin of three points, with the final score being 79-76.  Carnegie Mellon was very proud to be awarded with the trophy at the end of the competition to prove their hard work and commitment to physical fitness.