11/23/09 - The Lubbock City Council will recognize Team Lubbock for our recent success at the Combat Challenge World Finals during the Council meeting on December 16th at 9:00 a.m.
11/22/09 - Today's Lubbock Avalanche Journal ran an article covering Team Lubbock's recent success at the Combat Challenge World Finals in Las Vegas.
11/20/09 - Not only does Lubbock have TWO of the top 32 relay
teams in the world, but we are the only department to have two teams
advance that far!
We will update the site as soon as possible with official results.
WAY TO GO TEAM LUBBOCK!
11/18/09 - Team Lubbock Relay and Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock Relay BOTH qualify to run in the finals on Friday!
Not only does Lubbock have TWO of the top 64 relay teams in the world, but we are the only department to qualify two teams!
11/07/09 - Team Lubbock was featured in today's Lubbock Avalanche Journal. Check out the article by clicking here.
09/27/09 - It has been a month and a half since the Lubbock
Firefighter Combat Challenge Team last competed in Altus, Oklahoma.
This weekend, Team Lubbock traveled to Tyler, Texas, to compete in
their final Regional Combat Challenge for the 2009 season.
15
firefighters from Lubbock made the trip, making this the largest group
the team had ever entered in an event. Team Lubbock faced over 120
firefighters from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Florida as
they battled head-to-head for the fastest time in the Individual, Team,
Relay and Tandem categories.
Team Lubbock, made up of Lubbock
Firefighters J.W. Ray, Nathan Klatt, Phillip Grandon, Travis Austin,
and Nick Wilson, finished in 6th place overall. Lubbock had three of
the top-10 tandem teams, with the Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock tandem of
Phillip Grandon and Justin Rhodes finishing in 3rd place with a team
best time of 1:28.44.
All of Team Lubbock's times are listed under the Schedule/Results page.
The
team has two more competitions this year: The National Finals at the
Ballpark in Arlington on October 30th and 31st, and the World Finals in
Las Vegas, Nevada, November 16th through the 20th.
09/16/09 - Local radio stations Kool 98, 94.5 FMX, and
99.5 "The Bear" all interviewed Team Lubbock on the air this morning!
The hosts on the respective stations were all very friendly and asked
lots of great questions.
The biggest challenge we face as a team
in our fund raising efforts is educating the public about what the
Combat Challenge is and why it is good for our team members, the fire
department, and the City of Lubbock. Getting out and being interviewed
like we were today is a big help in getting that done, and we sincerely
appreciate being given time on each station.
09/11/09 - Lubbock has registered a team-record 15 competitors for the Tyler, Texas Firefighter Combat Challenge Regional, coming up September 25th & 26th.
08/11/09 - Team Lubbock's Justin Rhodes & Matt Hixson appeared on Double T 104.3 FM this morning to promote the team.
The hosts spent about ten minutes asking us questions about the Combat Challenge, our success the season, and our plans for next year.
Thanks to everyone at Double T 104.3 for having us on!
08/06/09 - Team Lubbock was featured this morning on local Fox affiliate KJTV's morning program, "Good Day Lubbock", with Megan LaVoie.
Pre-recorded footage ran at 6 & 6:30 a.m., and then Team Lubbock was live every half hour from 7 to 8:30 a.m.
If we can get footage of the live shots, we'll be sure to post it as well.
Thanks to Megan, Julio, and everybody at Fox 34 for their outstanding coverage of Team Lubbock!
08/05/09 - Team Lubbock will be LIVE on Fox 34's "Good Day Lubbock" program with Megan LaVoie tomorrow morning (Thursday, August 6th) between 6 A.M. and 9 A.M.
08/01/09 - Lubbock’s Firefighter Combat Challenge
team made the most of the Dr. Pepper Regional Firefighter Competition in Altus,
Oklahoma over the weekend, with team members qualifying for the World Finals in
every category in which they competed. CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO RECAP OF THE ALTUS COMPETITION
Team
Lubbock competes in the Open Male, Team, Relay, and Tandem categories of the
competition.
Every
member of the team set personal records in the Open Male competition. Travis Austin had the biggest improvement,
running a 2:05.76 to shatter his previous personal record by an amazing 39.62
seconds. Jason Bobo and Nick Wilson also
improved in Altus, dropping 13.55 and 21.26 seconds from their personal
records, respectively.
Phillip
Grandon became the first team member to have a sub-2:00 run, knocking over 17
seconds off of his personal record and finishing with a 1:59.95. Nathan Klatt followed up by improving on his
personal record by over 14 seconds and finishing with a 1:53.09. However, J.W. Ray became the first Lubbock
Firefighter ever to qualify for the Combat Challenge World Finals in the Open
Male category, knocking off over 27 seconds from his previous personal record
and leading the team with a 1:49.27.
(With
the help of the crowd in Altus and Rex Nimrod, the Combat Challenge announcer, Grandon
also asked his girlfriend, Britni Rodriguez, to marry him! She accepted).
In the
Team Category, Lubbock needed to run faster than 6:30 to qualify for worlds and
did so by besting their previous fastest team time by over 58 seconds,
finishing with a world-qualifying 5:42.31.
In the
Relay category, Lubbock fielded two teams for the first time. The Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock Relay (Travis
Austin, Phillip Grandon, Nathan Klatt, J.W. Ray, and Nick Wilson) improved on
their previous world qualifying time, dropping 3.20 seconds to post a 1:23.45.
The
other Relay Team (Jason Bobo, Casey Chance, Johnny Guerrero, Matt Hixson, and
Justin Rhodes) isn’t sponsored, and thus competed as “Team Lubbock Relay”. In their first competition, the Team Lubbock
Relay finished with a 1:36.56, which also qualifies them for the World Finals.
Team Lubbock also fielded a team-record six tandem squads at this event, with
two of them (Rhodes/Grandon and Ray/Austin) running sub-1:45 times to qualify
for the World Finals. After Altus, three
of the six tandem teams have world-qualifying times.
The
team’s final regional is in Tyler, Texas, September 25 & 26 for the Tyler
Regional Firefighter Competition. They
will also compete at the U.S. Nationals in Arlington, Texas October 30 &
31, and the World Challenge XVIII Finals, November 16-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
07/29/09 - Congratulations to Jimmy Tyson, winner of the Rock River Arms Entry Tactical LAR-15 raffle!
Team Lubbock Manager Matt Hixson (Right) congratulates Jimmy Tyson, raffle winner
Thanks
to Tom Larson and everyone at Lubbock Shooters Group for all of their
assistance and advice with the raffle, and thanks to everyone who
bought tickets for supporting Team Lubbock! Proceeds from the raffle
are going to help pay for
Team Lubbock's trip to the World Finals competition in Las Vegas this
November.
07/27/09 - Justin Rhodes and Matt Hixson of Team Lubbock were interviewed this morning by Paul Beane and Dave Taylor on True Country 105.3.
Mr. Beane and Mr. Taylor spent about fifteen minutes visiting with us about the team, our success so far, and our upcoming goals. We also discussed the possibility of building a proper training tower here in Lubbock, and our dream to bring a regional competition to Lubbock next year.
We have been invited back to be on the program later in the season, so be sure to check here for more information on when that will occur. Thanks again to Mr. Beane and Mr. Taylor, and to everyone at True Country 105.3 for supporting Team Lubbock.
07/24/09 - Team Lubbock has registered for the Dr. Pepper Regional Firefighter Combat Challenge competition, to be held July 31st
& August 1st in Altus, Oklahoma.
We will be taking a record number of Lubbock firefighters to Altus. Our primary team for the Open category is made up of Jason Bobo, Phillip Grandon, Nathan Klatt, J.W. Ray, and Nick Wilson. For the first time, we are also taking a second Open team, made up of Travis Austin, Casey Chance, Michael Eberle, Johnny Joe Guerrero, and Matt Hixson.
We have also registered two Relay teams and a total of five tandem teams for the event, which is more than we ever have before.
07/03/09 - Team Lubbock was out at River Smith's
restaurant at 83rd & University last night to be interviewed by Don
Williams and Ryan Hyatt for SportsRadio 1340,
KKAM. This was the team's first foray into radio, and we really
enjoyed it. They even invited us to come back on the show at the end
of the month to get everybody pumped up for the Altus, Oklahoma
competition -- thank you, Williams & Hyatt!
07/01/09 - Team Lubbock is scheduled to be interviewed by Ryan Hyatt on Sports Radio 1340 this Thursday afternoon at the River Smith's restaurant at 83rd & University sometime after 6pm.
Come out, get some great food, and support Team Lubbock.
06/30/09 - Brooke Chavez with KAMC 28 came out today to do a story on Team Lubbock's recent success at the "Rumble in the Rockies" regional competition in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
06/30/09 - Logan Carver of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper wrote up an excellent recap of Team Lubbock escapades in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Check it out by clicking here.
06/29/09 - Team Lubbock has returned from Colorado Springs,
Colorado, having just finished competing at the "Rumble in the Rockies"
regional event June 26-27. At 6,700 feet above sea level, this was the
highest Combat Challenge in the 18 year history of the competition.
In
spite of the altitude, Team Lubbock shaved over 23 seconds off of our
fastest team time, finishing with a strong 6:40.76 for an impressive
top-10 finish against a large field. Individual times also improved,
with Phillip Grandon dropping almost 30 seconds from his personal
record.
The Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock Relay was also faster,
dropping over five seconds from their previous fastest time, but losing
in the Sweet 16 to the eventual 4th-place finisher.
Team Lubbock
fielded a total of four tandem teams at this event, with two of them
running sub-1:45 times to qualify for the World Finals in Las Vegas,
Nevada in November.
For all of Team Lubbock's results, be sure to check out the results page.
06/23/09 - KLBK will air their report on Team Lubbock tonight, Tuesday, June 24th.
06/16/09 - Team Lubbock Captain Justin Rhodes presents Stephanie Webb, Marketing Director of Carpet Tech, the award plaque and world-qualifier flag earned by the Carpet Tech of Lubbock relay team at the Combat Challenge regional competition in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
06/15/09 - Local CBS affiliate KLBK 13 will be out at tomorrow afternoon's practice to film footage for an upcoming story on Team Lubbock.
Stay tuned for more information on when the story will air.
06/15/09 - Team Lubbock registered today for the "Rumble in the Rockies" regional competition, to be held June 26th & 27th at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
06/06/09 -
Lubbock’s Firefighter Combat Challenge team competed
in its first-ever regional Firefighter Combat Challenge event in Carlsbad, New
Mexico today, with a strong overall showing.
Competing as Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock, the relay team
advanced to the final round by winning a close head-to-head semi-final match
against the San Antonio Fire Department by only 0.45 seconds. This advanced them to the final round, where
they faced the 2008 Grand National Champion “SAM Squad”, from the Department of
Defense Fire Academy in San Angelo.
Lubbock’s time of 1:34.44 wasn’t enough against SAM Squad’s impressive
1:19.03, but it was good enough to qualify the team for the World Finals to be
held in Las Vegas this November.
Justin Rhodes and Phillip Grandon, also competed in
the Tandem event as Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock, and finished second overall
with an impressive 1:38.16. This time
qualifies them for the World Finals as well.
Hopefully we'll bring back good news from this Saturday's event in Carlsbad, NM for the AJ's Sunday edition...
06/03/09 - The first order of Team Lubbock t-shirts is ready to go. We will be distributing shirts over the coming days.
Money will be due when you receive the shirt. Cash, check or money order is fine.
Thanks again to everyone who ordered, and to Outerwear USA, who made them look great!
05/30/09 - A reporter from the Lubbock Avalanche Journal will be at Team Lubbock's practice on Tuesday night. Check out the AJ this week to see if our story makes it in the paper in time for our first competition, which is only one week from today!
05/19/09 - John Childress of Childress Photography took some amazing photos of Team Lubbock tonight for the website and our upcoming team poster. The initial shots looked great, but John is going to take some time to work his magic on them to make them even better!
We would also like to thank the crew on Engine 1, A-shift (Justin Koontz, Chris Osborne, Brian Stephens, and J.W. Ray) for cleaning up their engine and bringing it out for us to use in the picture.
05/14/09 - Team Lubbock "officially" registered today for the regional Combat Challenge competition in Carlsbad, New Mexico, taking place on June 6th.
Team Captain Justin Rhodes and Phillip Grandon will compete as "Team Carpet Tech of Lubbock Tandem" in the tandem event.
We hope everyone comes out and supports us!
05/06/09 - Team Lubbock t-shirts were ordered today from Outerwear USA. We hope to have them in by the week of May 25th, in time for our first competition in Carlsbad, New Mexico on Saturday, June 6th.
Thanks to everyone who ordered. Shirts will be delivered as soon as possible, and payment will be due upon delivery.
05/05/09 - Team Lubbock will be taking team photos in the Depot District the evening of Tuesday, May 19th, for the website and upcoming team posters.
02/05/09 - The Lubbock Firefighter Combat Challenge Team will be featured on NewsChannel 11's "I Beat Pete" tonight, Thursday, February 5th. Tune in to see if Team Lubbock can defeat Pete Christy and Team 11 in a best two-out-of-three combat challenge relay!
