ARMY WINS, 175-0
BALTIMORE, Md. – The 2016 Patriot Games began Friday morning at several locations in downtown Baltimore, Md., and concluded Saturday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.
Army and Navy sent squads to compete in a series of mental and physical challenges as a part of the build up to the 117th Army-Navy Game presented by USAA.
All four events on Friday were worth 25 points, with Saturday's obstacle course competition being worth 75 points.
Event number one consisted of two parts, and the winner was determined based on lowest total combined time. The first portion was a maze challenge, where six competitors from each side were blindfolded and verbally led through the maze by team leaders stationed outside of the labyrinth. People in the maze were not allowed to talk.
Army won the coin toss and decided to let Navy go first. The Midshipmen completed the event in 3:50.00. The Cadets stepped up next, and navigated the maze in just 2:20.00.
The second part of the first event was the memory challenge, where the teams had to remember the order of several items, and then recreate the order after they had been shuffled. Both squads were blindfolded during the shuffling of the items. Army went first this time, and finished the challenge in 4:20.00. and Navy countered by completing the task in 4:00.00. Army won the two-part event with a lower total time of 6:40.00, as opposed to Navy's time of 7:50.00.
The second event was the Zodiac Carry Race, where the Cadets and Midshipmen had to each carry a weighted Zodiac boat along the waterfront promenade to the Inner Harbor Amphitheater. Army scored its second consecutive win, carrying the weighted boat across the finish line before Navy.
In the third matchup of the morning, Army showed its strength by defeating Navy, 2-0, in the tug-of-war contest.
The two sides took a break before the final event, as the pep rally commenced. Ray Lewis, former Baltimore Ravens linebacker, was a guest speaker and provided words of encouragement to both schools for the game, tomorrow afternoon. He also provided motivation and kept the time during the pull-up challenge, which Army won, 220-202. With the win, the Black Knights clinched the 2016 Patriot Games with an insurmountable lead, 100-0.
Army closed out the competition with a victory in the obstacle course, completing the sweep on the weekend.
