FORNEY, Texas — The Forney Fire Combat Challenge Team earned its first ever podium placement during a two-day competition in Sulpher Springs, Texas, over the weekend and also secured their eight consecutive world championship qualification.
FORNEY, Texas — The Forney Fire Combat Challenge Team earned its first ever podium placement during a two-day competition in Sulpher Springs, Texas, over the weekend and also secured their eight consecutive world championship qualification.
The team took 2nd place in the team relay on Saturday — their first podium placement since the team formed eight years ago.
Despite a loss in the seeding round to Desoto by four-tenths of a second, Forney Combat went undefeated throughout the elimination rounds before securing a 2nd place finish in the finals against Carlsbad with a time of 1:21.66 compared to Carlsbad’s 1:12.11.
In the Elimination Round, Forney Combat defeated Hopkins County Station 20 with a time of 1:29.44 compared to 1:59.77, improved their time to 1:19.31 in their Round of Eight win over Team Dr. Pepper which had a time of 1:30.06, and again improved their time to 1:15.31 in their Semi-Final win over Round Rock which had a time of 1:21.20.
In the Individual Relays on Friday, Team Captain and Lions’ Den member Russell Bannister took 9th place with a time of 1:47.56, Brian Leathers took 26th place with a time of 2:15.76, David Lawson took 28th place with a time of 2:16.06, and Darren Yarborough took 35th place with a time of 2:32.96.
With their individual times, Forney Combat placed 4th in the Individual Relay Open with a total combined time, of their three bet placements, of 6:19.38.
The early-season 2nd place finish in the Relays clinched a qualification to the World Challenge XXV which will be held in Montgomery, Alabama, on October 24 through 29.
