Landrum High School junior and JROTC student Annie Lee Bouwkamp emerged victorious in the “Best of the Best” Fourth Brigade Raiders competition last month in Virginia with her instructor, Senior Army Instructor Lt. Col. Robert Sanders. 

Bouwkamp, who brought home the title of “Iron Woman” in the Best of the Best competition, competed in the tournament against teams from schools across West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

She and her Raiders team have competed in four state championships since 2011, three of which were in a row from 2013 to 2015. Bouwkamp received the first place female accolade in last year’s tournament and the Landrum Raiders were named the state champions.

In the Best of the Best tournament, Bouwkamp completed a series of events including push-up and sit-up challenges in two minutes, running a mile in 6:30 and a commander’s event consisting of pulling a truck, flipping a tire and the fireman’s carry where she had to run through an obstacle course while carrying someone on her back across her shoulders.

Constant training throughout the year under Sanders’ instruction helped Bouwkamp compete in the event, she said, adding that the victory made her feel “excited, definitely exhausted but accomplished.”

According to Sanders, the Fourth Brigade Raiders Best of the Best competition invites the top three JROTC Raider teams from each state to compete in the tournament. Landrum High School’s team had been selected to compete last month, and Bouwkamp beat out all of the other females in the meet.

“She’s been Iron Woman several times before,” Sanders explained. “But this was her first time in competing in one of these competitions against some really steep competition and some of the best athletes.”

Sanders commended Bouwkamp for being a good athlete, student and leader inside the classroom.

“The other students really respect her,” Sanders said.

Competing in the tournament were 20 teams with nine students each, which are chosen from more than 360 teams competing in the southeast region, according to Sanders.

An eye opener meet, as Sanders likes to call it, will be held at the beginning of the new school year in September. The Army Physical Fitness Test along with a rope bridge challenge and an obstacle course will be highlights of this meet.

“We will do the PT test, a rope bridge and probably a litter course and the obstacle course,” Sanders said. “It will be very rigorous physically. The eye opener hasn’t allowed much practice since it’s the beginning of the year.”

However, he still encourages his students to practice over the summer to prepare for the next school year.

During the competition, Sanders noticed that most of the teams he competed against included seniors and said that is where the competition had their strengths. Bouwkamp will be a senior next year, and Sanders said he expects to have everyone else return to the team.

“I think it will be a very strong team, and we’ll be hard to beat next year,” Sanders predicted.