Participants in 2017 Operations Challenge Competition
The Operations Challenge was held in early June 2017 during the NEWEA Spring Meeting with four teams participating in the competition: The teams competing were:
- Connecticut – Franken Froggers (Jason Nenninger-Captain, Christopher Findley, Dan Sullivan, Dan Wolff)
- Maine – Force Maine (Alex Buechner-Captain, Riley Cobb, Dan Laflamme, Scot Lausier)
- New Hampshire – Seacoast Sewer Snakes (Michael Carle-Captain, Patty Chesebrough, Dustin Price, Mike Tibbetts)
- Rhode Island – Ocean State Alliance (Eddie Davies-Captain, Peter Hassel, Tyler Ippi, Russ McGinnis, Pete Rojas, Kim Sanbach)
All teams did an outstanding job preparing for competition with the prize for the top 3 finishers being a trip to WEFTEC in Chicago to represent NEWEA at the operations challenge national competition. The events ended up getting shuffled around a bit due to inclement weather but in usual fashion all teams and judges adapted to the competition changes seamlessly. There is tremendous amount of comradery within operation challenge and it showed this year as all involved helped setup and take down the entire safety event in the same afternoon to beat the rain. I know it may not sound like much but spend a few hours assembling and disassembling the safety platform jigsaw puzzle and you will have a greater appreciation for these efforts. On that note, the teams, event coordinators, judges, sponsors and NEWEA staff all worked tirelessly leading up to and during the competition to make this event successful and should be commended for their efforts.
Rhode Island’s Ocean State Alliance Takes 1st in All 5 Categories
Like all competitions someone needs to ultimately win and that is exactly what the Rhode Island Ocean State Alliance did in full force. In fact, Rhode Island did something I am not sure has been done before in that they swept first place in all five events. This is remarkable and something you might expect from a veteran team, however they did it with a team made up of all first-year members with one exception, and that was their savvy veteran captain Ed Davies who did a remarkable job leading the team.
A huge yet deserving surprise this year was a third overall finish from the 1st year Connecticut Franken Froggers. This team didn’t assemble until after training day in April and obviously put in a serious effort to be prepared for competition and now get to experience the big stage at Nationals. Completing the top three finishers that will represent NEWEA this year was the returning team of Maine, the Force Maine, which took second overall. Maine knows what it takes to compete with the big dogs and will surely do great at WEFTEC. Despite not qualifying to make the trip to Chicago, the New Hampshire Sewer Snakes made a great showing, were in high spirits having fun, and fully supported the other three teams during and after competition. The team did report that they were grateful for the experience and are determined to work that much harder to better place next year. All in all, the competition went very well and thanks to the efforts of all involved I believe NEWEA will be well represented in October at WEFTEC.
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