Several Daphne students in the AL-935 drill team unit conquered their first meet in Gulf Breeze, Florida, on Oct. 28.

Four student-led teams competed in the meet under the direction of Daphne students Sevyn Smith, senior, and Daniel Hill, senior. The competing teams were under the direction of Samuel McFall and Zoey Smith and were comprised of a physical training team led by Cade Johnson, sophomore; a color guard team led by Luke Jones, senior; an armed team led by Paul Mercer, senior; and an unarmed team led by Smith, sophomore.

The award program, which began in 1993, is celebrating a milestone this year as senior instructor Lt. Col. Doug Goodlin celebrates his 14th year of teaching, and CMS Donald Terrance celebrates his fourth year of teaching.

The PT team competed first in a 400-meter dash and push-up competition followed by the armed team that competed in an inspection and maneuver competition and concluded with the unarmed and color guard teams that rounded out the competition day.

While the unarmed team didn't place, they learned valuable insights and are excited to tackle the next competition in Hoover in January. However, the armed team placed third in the maneuver portion of their competition, and the color guard team placed third amongst seven other competing school teams.

The drill team also performed their routine, garnering several individual medals for cadets Johnson who placed second and Hunter Forrestel who placed third.