Killian relieved to add ‘Best Ranger’ title to world Spartan Race champion
For the last two years, Army Reservist Capt. Robert Killian, an elite endurance athlete, has watched other soldiers raise the pistols after winning the David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition.
This year it was Killian and his partner, Pennsylvania Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Erich Friedlein, holding guns high and celebrating Monday morning in Marshall Auditorium at Fort Benning.
“It was a huge relief,” Killian said. “It has been hard-earned and a long time coming. I have worked numerous years to refine my techniques and it paid off.”
It was a relief because Killian wanted it so badly. In addition to his runner-up finishes, before that he’d finished five times in the Top 10 in a competition in which the two-man team is only as strong as its weakest link. The reservists defeated two teams with strong Fort Benning connections. First Sgt. David Floutier and Staff Sgt. Joshua Rolfes of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade finished second and Capt. Michael Blanchard and Capt. Brian Slamkowski of the Maneuver Center of Excellence took third.
Fifty teams competed for the title and just 23 finished.
It came down to the final event on Sunday, a road march of about three miles.
“It was awesome that it came down to the wire,” Killian said. “There was an opportunity for whoever wanted it most to win. You guys are going to be tested on your physical ability to get from one point to the next. ... I left it all on line. There was a hill climb when we made the final turn, my thighs were burning. It was brutal.”
Acting Secretary of the Army Patrick J. Murphy spoke to the teams that finished, calling Fort Benning “the Athens and Sparta of America.”
“What you do here makes our Army so strong,” Murphy said. “... What these competitors have gone through — three days, 60 hours — it is the ultimate competition of strength, grit, a test of human spirit and most importantly of teamwork. Every single one of you on this stage was the epitome of what a warrior is and the epitome of what every soldier should aspire to be.”
Friedlein said he just held on most of the weekend.
“I know that I am nowhere near the level of greatness he is,” Friedlein said. “I just had to try and do the least amount of damage to him as I possibly could. I tried hardest not to slow him down too much. There was tons of pressure. ... You have to focus on what you can do.”
In past Best Ranger Competitions, Killian, 34, said one of his problems had been “crushing” his partner. There were a couple of times this year where Friedlein, 31, was at his limit.
“He was seeing his limit a couple of times during land navigation,” Killian said. “We were out there for 11 and a half hours until the final minutes to try and obtain as many points as possible. He was zoning out a couple of times, talking about Mickey Mouse on my map when I was showing him where we were. He dug deep. He held on and I couldn’t have done it without him.”
The Friday night road march was more than 17 miles over tricky terrain, and the Killian/Friedlein team finished fourth.
“It was pretty hilly and we said we had to go out hard,” Friedlein said. “We were already behind in points, not exactly where we wanted to be. Capt. Killian really pushed me — and when I say pushed me, he physically pushed me on a lot of the uphills to get me going faster so we could close the gap.”
One of the advantages for Killian’s team was a Spartan Race, a high-energy obstacle course over 5 miles, that was thrown into the mix on Saturday morning about 24 hours into the competition. Killian won the 2015 Spartan Race world championship in Lake Tahoe, Calif. The Best Ranger Competition, with its 60 consecutive hours and more than 60 miles of movement, is five times tougher than a Spartan Beast Race, Killian said.
The Best Ranger title exceeds the Spartan title, Killian said.
“For me it means way more than winning that competition,” Killian said. “If you look at it from this perspective, there is a Spartan Race within our 60 hours of competition. It shows you how in-depth and hard it is to win this event.”
Killian is not sure what the title of Best Ranger will add to the marketability he earned from the Spartan title.
“First and foremost, I am a Guardsman and a military veteran,” he said. “The overall factor of being a military athlete winning the competition I don’t think will make me any more marketable or appealing for sponsorships.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Killian relieved to add ‘Best Ranger’ title to world Spartan Race champion."