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96 ARS hosts first JBPHH Fitness Throwdown

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Terri Paden
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  More than 50 members of the 15th wing competed for the chance to earn bragging rights in a friendly fitness challenge here June 14.

The 96th Air Refueling Squadron hosted the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Fitness Throwdown at Hangar 13 to encourage team building and camaraderie among the athletes on base with shared interest in extreme or high intensity workouts.

The Special Operations Command Pacific Team took the lead in the competition, which consisted of nine six-person teams tasked to collectively complete six high intensity workouts for the best timed score. The competition was the first of its kind for the wing, but will ultimately become part of a larger Island-wide competition that will pit Soldiers, Sailors and Marines together to find the most fit team on the island.

Capt. Michael Kerschbaum, 96 ARS and competition creator, said the idea began to take shape four months ago after he witnessed the success of an inner-squadron competition.
"On a Sunday, about four months ago, I put together a team workout that was tons of fun," he said. "We got 11 members from the 96 ARS out in the morning to race through a course and that eventually grew into the competition we had today."

Kerschbaum said the competition was loosely based off the Crossfit Games held in 2011 and 2012, though he changed some of the workouts for the JBPHH Fitness Throwdown.

"The goal of this competition was to test a unit's ability to field athletes with many different skill sets," he said. "Each event requires a different level of cardio respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. The squadron that prepared their unit in one domain but lacked ability in other areas was obviously not going to win this competition."

Lt. Col. Grant Sharpe, SOCPAC Team member, said his team, which also included Maj. Charles Siedlecki, Lt. Col. Loren Jerlow, Maj. Dan Fuhr and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Justin Ackerman, began training for the competition by working out as a team one to two times per week two months prior to the event.

Sharpe said he's especially proud of his team's performance given their handicap. One of their team members was forced to drop out of the competition at the last minute due to a TDY which caused one teammate to have to complete two events.

In addition to his team's performance, Sharpe said he was also impressed by the exciting atmosphere and the athletes that signed up for the competition.

"The second and third heats had some exceptional athletes that posted individual times that rival those of professional crossfitters and having that level of competition really pushed all the athletes to excel and push themselves to the limit," he said. "It was amazing to see everyone pushing themselves to help their teams and no one giving up. It was especially fun to see the carnage of crossfitters sprawled out on the ground after each event."

Though ultimately there was only one winner, the spirit and camaraderie of the competition proved to be the biggest reward for those competing.

"It was awesome to get together with my squadron members and co-workers to workout," said Capt. Daniel Montilla, KC-135 Stratotanker pilot. "It was awesome, inspiring and it makes you want to keep working out ... it's infectious and I think it definitely motivated the people watching to get back into working out if they've been out of the gym for a few weeks or even months."

As the first Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Fitness Throwdown came to a close, Kerschbaum said he was extremely excited about the outcome of the competition.

"In the end it came down to about a minute separating the top three teams and made for some great races to the finish," he said. "I am pumped we got to meet and compete with so many outstanding athletes, I could not have drawn it out any better."