The Battle Bunker’s flagship competition took place October 29, 2022 in Chula Vista, CA. 32 men and 31 women competed for $20,000 in cash. The competition was comprised of 3 military-style fitness events testing the highest level of physical readiness.
The Battle Bunker was created by Austen Alexander, in conjunction with race director Hunter McIntyre.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2022 Battle Bunker competition.
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About Battle Bunker
Battle Bunker is comprised of 3 events. The points you receive for each event is correlated to what place you finished. First place gets 1 point, second place gets 2 points, and so on.
The athlete with the lowest score at the end of all 3 events wins.
Date: October 29, 2022
Time: 6:30am – 7:00pm
Location:
Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center
2800 Olympic Pkwy
Chula Vista, CA 91915
Prize Money
Athletes will be competing for $20,000 in cash prizes. Men & women will each receive the following cash prizes for their spot on the podium.
🥇 $6,000
🥈 $3,000
🥉 $1,000
Events
Battle Bunker consisted of 3 events, all taking place in one day.
Event 1: Triple R
Event 1, Triple R, is:
2-mile ruck (50#/35#)
2000m row
800m run
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The 800m run held more importance than the first two parts of this event. Seconds were added to everyone’s final time, in multiples of 3, based on how fast they ran the 800m.
The fastest 800m run received 0:03. The second fastest received 0:06. Third fastest, 0:09. And so on. These seconds were added to your original finish time before finalizing the times.
So even if you finished the event first, if your 800m run was much slower than others, you might not have won the event.
Men’s Results
- Rylan Schadegg
- Jarrett Newby
- Ryan Kent
- Veejay Jones
- Isiah Vidal
Women’s Results
- Ida Mathilde Steensgaard
- Lauren Weeks
- Cali Schweikhart
- Jerine Klingberg
- Kris Rugloski
Watch the full replay of Event 1 here:
Event 2: Fubar
Event 2, Fubar, is:
With an 8-minute time cap…
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4 rounds of:
5 sandbag cleans
5 sandbag front squats
100m sandbag carry
With the remaining time, sandbag run for distance.
Sandbag weight: 100# for men, 70# for women
Your score is the distance covered on the sandbag run. Whomever goes the farthest, wins.
Men’s Results
- Ryan Kent
- Isiah Vidal
- Cole Schwartz
- Alex Baker
- Jarrett Newby
Women’s Results
- Carly Wopat
- Jerine Klingberg
- Katie Knight
- Calypso Sheridan
- Cali Schweikhart
Watch the full replay of Event 2 here:
Event 3: Hybricon
Event 3, Hybricon, is:
A ~400m obstacle course with 22 obstacles and an 8-minute time cap.
Obstacles included:
- over & under logs
- balance beams
- jerry can carry
- warped wall
- reverse A-frame cargo net
- monkey bars
- rope climb
- vertical wall
- rope traverse
- …and more
Men’s Results
- Veejay Jones – 4:49
- Leon Kofoed – 5:00
- Isiah Vidal – 5:27
- Taylor Overmiller – 5:47
- Jarrett Newby – 5:55
Women’s Results
- Ida Mathilde Steensgaard – 5:21
- Kris Rugloski – 6:17
- Calypso Sheridan – 6:35
- Jerine Klingberg – 6:56
- Lauren Weeks – 7:48
Watch the full replay of Event 3 here:
Results
The final results/leaderboard for Battle Bunker 2022:
Women
- 🥇 Ida Mathilde Steensgaard – $6,000
- 🥈 Jerine Klingberg – $3,000
- 🥉 Lauren Weeks – $1,000
- Calypso Sheridan
- Katie Knight
- Carly Wopat
- Kris Ruglowski
- Cali Schweikhart
- Hannah Matusik
- Kelly Sullivan
- Shannon Woodard
- Ashley Heller
- Marissa Coy
- Faye Morgan
- Jess Johnston
- Sara Lasovska
- Josephine Kelly
- Paula Santos
- Sandra Khounvicha
- Heidi Williams
- Aliyah Emas
- Olga Torres
- Julie Best
- Phyllis Almaraz
- Chrish Newell
- Afiyah Letford
- Amber Nelson
- Carly Gregson
- Ava Muylle
- Jessica Ha
- Angel Romero
- Felicia Lopez (did not compete)
Men
- 🥇 Isiah Vidal – $6,000
- 🥈 Ryan Kent – $3,000
- 🥉 Jarrett Newby – $1,000
- Veejay Jones
- Rylan Schadegg
- Cole Schwartz
- Alex Baker
- Taylor Overmiller
- Johnny Mares
- Alec Blenis
- Phillip Muscarella
- Farren Morgan
- Aaron Nowlin
- Kaleb Yates
- Leon Kofoed
- Lorenzo Contreras
- Marshall Cupples
- Jon Clark
- Christopher Vonhof
- Thaddeus Segura
- Adrian Cervantez
- Grant Kelm
- Jason Rich
- Eamon Barkhordarian
- Luke Halterman
- Kieran Wills
- Wilson Washington
- Thomas Woods
- Adrian Taha-Green
- Dylan Dorn
- Julian Hersh
- Stephen Koessler
Challenges
For a first year event, Battle Bunker was well received. Most of the athletes had positive things to say.
But it wasn’t without a few challenges.
Rowers Malfunctioning
There were 5 rowing machines that malfunctioned in the Triple R event. The chain wasn’t catching, which caused some strokes not to register any meters. The athletes on these rowers had to pull two or three times to see any meters tick by.
Some measures were taken to try and address this, but it definitely caused some frustration. Race director, Hunter McIntyre, said he thoroughly tested all the rowers, but things like this can still happen.
Overall, I think it played a very small role in the overall standings, possibly even no role at all.
Event Descriptions & Scoring
While watching the livestream, it was clear that the announcers didn’t know the exact format of each event. In some cases, like with event 2, Fubar, it seemed as if the event changed on the fly.
As long as the athletes were informed of the changes, and they were all on the same page before the event started, this isn’t a huge deal for them. But it was frustrating from the spectators point of view. We’d love to know the format of the event we’re watching.
We also didn’t know how the scoring was being calculated. In events 2 & 3, they started posting top finishing times on the bottom of the livestream, but that was only for those individual events. We had no idea who won event 1, who was in the overall lead, how close first/second/third was, etc.
A better understanding of where athletes stand helps create more excitement for the subsequent events. It keeps spectators more engaged. It would’ve been nice to have a leaderboard, or at least inform the announcers of the top 5 going into the final event.
Awesome Stories
No Woman Left Behind
Quoted from The Battle Bunker Instagram:
“Angel Romero started her first lap during Event 1 TRIPLE R. She had come into the competition to fill a spot for #48, who unfortunately had to cancel due to a shoulder injury two days prior.
With no training, Angel was coming in last place for the TRIPLE R, when all of the women who had just finished joined her on her last two lap of the TRIPLE R.”
Ida Dominates Hybricon Obstacle Course
Ida puts on a masterful display of athleticism on the Hybricon obstacle course. She wins by almost a full minute with a time of 5:21, which would’ve put her in 3rd place overall, including the men. It was incredible to watch.
Watch the replay, starting at 3:49:49:
Veejay Goes Sub 5:00 on Hybricon
Everyone knows Veejay is an obstacle machine, and watching him destroy the Hybricon course was no surprise. But to put up a time of 4:49?! His obstacle skills are next level.
Watch the replay, starting at 1:37:40:
Rylan’s Sportsmanship
In event 1, Triple R, Rylan Schadegg was the first one back from the ruck. During his row, race director Hunter McIntyre noticed his rower wasn’t functioning properly. Since some of his strokes were not producing any meters, he was told he could row 1500m instead of 2000m.
Rylan didn’t think that was fair to the other competitors so he rowed 2000m anyway. Rylan went on to win Triple R, even with a faulty rower.
Watch the video below where Hunter describes what happened.
You can also watch Hunter explain the scoring of event 2 and event 3.
Other Notes
Obstacle Racing Media obtained the final scoring spreadsheets for Battle Bunker 2022. Head on over to their site to see the official scores.
Will there be a Battle Bunker in 2023? We don’t know, but cofounder & host, Austen Alexander, alluded to it during an interview with Matt B. Davis of Obstacle Racing Media. Austen saw this flagship event as a success, and plans to host more events like it in the future.
Austen published an extensive recap of the event, from a director’s perspective. If you have any interest in the OCR/hybrid event space whatsoever, it’s definitely worth your time.
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