SMC Athlete represented Air Force during Inter-Nation Cross-Country Championship Published Jan. 12, 2007 By 1st Lt. Juan Ascencio Launch and Range Systems Wing Patrick Air Force Base -- The Air Force sent a team of six women and eight men to represent the United States at the Third Annual Component Command-Air HQ Ramstein Inter-Nation Cross-Country Championship meet from Dec. 6-8 in Poznan, Poland. Six Air Force teams from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and the United States all competed in a 5 kilometer cross-country race. 1st Lt. Caitlin Reese, Launch and Range Systems Wing, Eastern Range Program Office (Patrick AFB), Space and Missile Systems Center, was among the women selected for the event. Lieutenant Reese led the U.S. women to a second-place team finish behind the United Kingdom individually placing 4th out of a field of 30. "The course was extremely muddy as it was run on a field where the Polish military drive their tanks," said Reese. "It definitely wasn't easy going but it made for an interesting race!" The competition is held annually each December and starts with an Opening Ceremony and culminates the night of the race with a formal military Awards Banquet. The event is meant to foster friendship and camaraderie among the nations through athletics. The athletes stayed in a dormitory and trained together for a few days prior to the competition. According to Lieutenant Reese, "It was a great experience to get to know some of the members of the foreign militaries and be able to compete at the same time." Recently, Lieutenant Reese competed and won the Air Force Half-Marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, against over 700 female athlete participants and was recently named Spacelift Range Group Company Grade Officer of the year. In addition to being the lead Range Standardization and Automation Project Engineer for all Eastern Range communications projects, Lieutenant Reese is also an assistant volunteer coach for the Track and Field and Cross-Country teams at Satellite High School, Fla.