{"id":18537,"date":"2016-09-03T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/09\/03\/top-marine-tactical-athletes-share-tips-for-crushing-the-hitt-championship\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:27:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:27:39","slug":"top-marine-tactical-athletes-share-tips-for-crushing-the-hitt-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2016\/09\/03\/top-marine-tactical-athletes-share-tips-for-crushing-the-hitt-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Marine tactical athletes share tips for crushing the HITT championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Marine Corps has crowned two noncommissioned officers as the service&#8217;s top tactical athletes, and the pair is challenging every devil dog to take a shot at earning that title.\u00a0<br\/><br\/>Cpl. Ethan Mawhinney and Sgt. Calie Jacobsen edged out the competition during last month&#8217;s\u00a0High Intensity Tactical Training Ultimate Tactical Athlete Championship at\u00a0Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.\u00a0It&#8217;s only the second time the service has held the competition, which\u00a0pits 32 active-duty Marines against each other during a\u00a0grueling competition that combines tactical skills and athleticism that push Marines to their\u00a0mental and physical limits.\u00a0<br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HITT champ male\" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"00000156-ebb5-dfc9-a37f-efff4f570000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/51\/13\/a2931dfb4c76b4d069bc36388d8d\/hitt-champ-male.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>Cpl. Ethan Mawhinney, the top male competitor of the Tactical Athlete Championship, holds his trophy up during an awards ceremony aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., Aug. 18. <\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Pfc. Liah Kitchen\/Marine Corps <\/span><\/figcaption><br\/>The gauntlet includes events in five categories: The HITT assessment, a\u00a0300-yard power shuttle, a tactical hill climb, a virtual marksmanship test and a\u00a0tactical fitness challenge. But there\u2019s a catch: Competitors didn\u2019t know which of 150 possible events would be graded until the day of the event.<br\/><br\/> This year\u2019s winners shared their tips with Marine Corps Times, and talked about lessons learned that they will use to defend their title next year. The short version is this: Start training now. <br\/><br\/><b>Strength, endurance, agility\u00a0<\/b><br\/><br\/> Mawhinney, a Virginia-based\u00a0Marine air-ground task force planner, competed in the HITT championship\u00a0last year. After finishing in\u00a0sixth place, he said he knew he needed to work on his\u00a0speed and agility while increasing his weights in strength training.\u00a0<br\/><br\/> He warms up with something specific each day, ranging from\u00a0an Olympic lift to a box jump or max pullups. Once in the heart of the workout, diversity is the key as he targets movements in different parts of the body, often mixing calisthenics and weight training.<br\/><br\/>Mawhinney uses the same format but never repeats the same workout. He kicked it into high gear in March,\u00a0with longer and more intense workouts.<br\/><br\/> Jacobsen, a nondestructive inspection technician stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, took a similar approach. Her physical training\u00a0regimen focused on HITT\u2019s specific events \u2014 some days she works on strength and endurance, others on agility. <br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HITT champ female \" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"00000156-ebb6-dfd7-ab7e-fffeffc80000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/34\/43\/e4138eda4d7086247cb8a532caf1\/hitt-champ-female.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green places a championship belt on Sgt. Calie Jacobsen, the top female competitor, at the Annual Tactical Athlete Championship. <\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Pfc. Liah Kitchen\/Marine Corps <\/span><\/figcaption><br\/>Eight weeks before the competition,\u00a0Jacobsen\u00a0ramped up her workouts to two hours daily. As the competition closed in,\u00a0she committed to three-a-day PT sessions.\u00a0<br\/><br\/> The sergeant attributed her success to the assistance of the HITT program managers on her base\u00a0who served as coaches, and helped her find the motivation to continue when she was growing tired. <br\/><br\/> In fact, both champions said their success was as dependent on mental, as it was physical strength.<br\/><br\/><b>&#8216;Just push the whole time&#8217;\u00a0<\/b><br\/><br\/>When Jacobsen saw her competition, she said she\u00a0was admittedly intimidated by the physical conditioning of her competitors. <br\/><br\/>The championship\u00a0kicked off with the HITT assessment, a strenuous test of speed and agility, which she admits is not her forte. When she didn&#8217;t place in\u00a0the top three, she said she began thinking\u00a0she may be out of her league. But if she was\u00a0playing to win, she said she\u00a0knew she needed to change\u00a0her thinking. <br\/><br\/>The next few events\u00a0focused on strength and endurance, which she considered her strengths. That\u00a0motivated her to get back in the competition, where she found increasing success. By the end of Day 2, she was confident she would place. As Day 3 came to a close, she had her sights set on the championship. <br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HITT comp\" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"00000156-ebb9-dbd1-a5df-fbfba3560000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/dd\/ad\/a29d0b294368b5c495989a982795\/hitt-comp.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>A Marine climbs the rope on an obstacle course during the 2nd Annual Tactical Athlete Championship aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.<\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Pfc. Liah Kitchen\/Marine Corps <\/span><\/figcaption><br\/>The final event was the modified obstacle course, and though she had the lead,\u00a0Jacobsen\u00a0said she wasn&#8217;t taking anything for granted.\u00a0<br\/><br\/> &#8220;I told myself \u2018This is going to be a few minutes of extremely hard work\u00a0\u2013 just push the whole time,'&#8221; she said. The plan paid off; Jacobsen won the event by three seconds.<br\/><br\/> &#8220;The competition was absolutely amazing,&#8221; said Jacobsen, who recently reported to the sergeant\u2019s course. &#8220;The females were in great shape and did a fantastic job encouraging and pushing one another.&#8221;<br\/><br\/> Mawhinney\u2019s focus was more inward than outward. His strategy was simple: Leave everything on the field. <br\/><br\/> &#8220;The main thing was to walk away without anything left in the tank,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If I didn&#8217;t come out on top, that just meant there was better competition out there and I had to work harder next time.&#8221; <br\/><br\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HITT\" data-alignment=\"center\" data-object-id=\"00000156-ebbb-d76a-af5e-ffbfb9ac0000\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/snagfilms-a.akamaihd.net\/f3\/4f\/c864e0d044c9af2459402b9b2f10\/hitt.jpg\"\/><figcaption> <span>A Marine performs pushups with a pack during the 2nd Annual Tactical Athlete Championship aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.<\/span><\/figcaption><figcaption> <span>Photo Credit: Pfc. Liah Kitchen\/Marine Corps <\/span><\/figcaption><br\/> The corporal was tied for third place after the second event, and steadily worked his way to the front of the standings. He was\u00a0tied for second going into the last event. As he waited his turn to run the modified obstacle course, the Marine in first place hit a time of 3:40, which broke the competition record by 10 seconds. <br\/><br\/> Mawhinney admitted that made him a little nervous, but the record-setting score proved to be exactly what he needed. He pushed himself to the max, and\u00a0came in with a time of 3:15 \u2014 breaking the new record by a staggering 25 seconds.<br\/><br\/>After taking the title,\u00a0Mawhinney,\u00a0who has orders to Marine Special Operations Command headquarters, said he is already looking ahead to next year&#8217;s competition. He&#8217;s setting up his\u00a0training plan, with\u00a0greater focus on recovery. His advice to other Marines who train for the event\u00a0is that they\u00a0listen to your bodies, get adequate rest, have plenty of ice packs on hand, and be sure to work out tensions and knots.<br\/><br\/> &#8220;I am rolling forward,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to stay where I am. I want to go out there next year and leave no doubt.&#8221;<br\/><br\/><i>Lance M. Bacon is senior reporter for Marine Corps Times. He covers Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Marine Corps Forces Command, personnel \/ career issues, Marine Corps Logistics Command, II MEF, and Marine Forces North. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"mailto:lbacon@marinecorpstimes.com\" title=\"Link: mailto:lbacon@marinecorpstimes.com\"><i>lbacon@marinecorpstimes.com<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Marine Corps has crowned two noncommissioned officers as the service&#8217;s top tactical athletes, and the pair is challenging every devil dog to take a shot at earning that title. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1016],"class_list":["post-18537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RJQRJOQ4Z5GLDIORFCTTCP2MVE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2016\/09\/03\/top-marine-tactical-athletes-share-tips-for-crushing-the-hitt-championship\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Top Marine tactical athletes share tips for crushing the HITT championship - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Marine Corps has crowned two noncommissioned officers as the service&#039;s top tactical athletes, and the pair is challenging every devil dog to take a shot at earning that title.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2016\/09\/03\/top-marine-tactical-athletes-share-tips-for-crushing-the-hitt-championship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top Marine tactical athletes share tips for crushing the HITT championship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Marine Corps has crowned two noncommissioned officers as the service&#039;s top tactical athletes, and the pair is challenging every devil dog to take a shot at earning that title.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2016\/09\/03\/top-marine-tactical-athletes-share-tips-for-crushing-the-hitt-championship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marine Corps Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-03T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T20:27:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lance M. 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