Minnesota National Guard Soldiers of the Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 34th Infantry Division, competed in its Best Warrior Competition at the General John W. Vessey Readiness Center at the Arden Hills Army Training Site, March 7, 2026.
The purpose of the preliminary event is to determine who will advance to represent the Battalion at the Minnesota National Guard’s state Best Warrior Competition at Camp Ripley on April 15-19, 2026. Competitors participated in a variety of events that tested their skills and knowledge in basic Soldier tasks, including weapons training and proficiency, land navigation skills, first aid and casualty care, communications, physical fitness, ruck marching, and professional knowledge.
“The Best Warrior Competition is a significant event for the Soldiers and NCO’s who compete, as well as for the Army as a whole,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Megan Allen, the Battalion command sergeant major. “It is designed to test their physical and mental limits, demonstrate resilience, recognize excellence, and promote readiness. Competitors often have a higher promotion rate than their peers, and the competition provides a way for them to stand out and be recognized.”
The skills and knowledge gained during the competition are then brought back to the competitors’ unit, furthering the development of other Soldiers and improving training quality and unit readiness, Allen said.
“These Soldiers and NCOs are able to raise the bar within their formations, so to speak,” she said.
Allen’s role is to coordinate and oversee the Battalion’s BWC. Working closely with staff, the event was managed to ensure it was fair to all competitors and met Army doctrinal standards for executing Army warrior tasks.
At the end of the day, one junior enlisted Soldier and one noncommissioned officer must take the lead to represent the Battalion as the top Soldier and NCO at the state competition, Allen said.
This year, Spc. Ema Crone will champion the fight in the top Soldier category.
A Human Resources Specialist with Battalions Alpha Company, Crone enlisted in 2023 during the summer before her senior year in high school. A Buffalo native, she currently lives in Maple Grove and is in her second year at Anoka Ramsey Community College, where she is completing an Associate of Business degree. She is a part of the Business Transfer Pathway program between her college and Mankato State University, which will lead her to complete a Bachelor of Science in marketing. A full-time student, she also works full-time at a printing shop in her hometown of Buffalo, where she supports the business’s outsourcing efforts and works in the bindery department.
Balancing her studies and work while preparing for the Battalion-level competition wasn’t easy, Crone said. However, with the help of her boyfriend, who studied and even ruck marched alongside her, and the support she received from her parents and employer, it was made possible.
Crone put a lot of effort into preparing for the competition, particularly the board, even creating a collection of study notes and tips that she plans to pass on to next year’s competitors.
“I’m hoping I can hand it off to someone else if they do this competition,” she said. “I bet they’ll need it. It took me so long to create, and it’s just worth giving it to someone else.”
The preparation is not complete, and Crone continues to strategically plan the use of her physical and mental strengths, assess her weaknesses, and carefully calculate what other contenders may bring to the table.
“I’m feeling pretty good about the knowledge portion,” she said. “In the competition, I think it is mostly guys, and some do have more upper body strength, and I know this competition requires a lot of upper body strength. But I have a lot of lower-body strength, and if I can incorporate that, I can do it.”
Looking forward to the state event, Crone is already displaying good sportsmanship in her attitude.
“I think it will be really cool,” she said. “I mean, if I don’t win, I’m still there, and I still showed up.”
Sgt. Wyndsor Goodenough will drive forward to represent the NCO’s of the Battalion.
An infantryman assigned to Battalion’s Headquarters Support Company, Goodenough enlisted in 2020 shortly after graduating high school. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2024 and lives in West Salem, Wisconsin, where he works as an independent insurance agent.
When he was asked if he would compete to represent the Battalion, Goodenough said that he, well, thought perhaps he wasn’t “good enough” to represent the Battalion.
“I said ‘you know, I don’t think it’s something that I could particularly excel in compared to some of the other Soldiers here at the G3 (operations, planning, and training)’,” he said. “The next month, they said, ‘No ifs, ands, or buts, you’re the one, you’re doing it.’ To which I responded ‘All right, you know what? I’ll take the challenge. I’ll do my best.”
Working full-time and planning a wedding in October did not keep Goodenough from putting in the time and effort to give it his all. Knowing that he can indeed represent the Battalion is a great and humbling feeling, he said.
“It was a fantastic feeling,” he said. “I went in confident in my physical ability. The big thing was the studying habits and the mental game. I feel blessed to be able to represent our battalion as the NCO at the state level. I know that there were a couple of other solid NCO candidates that could have definitely taken the cake on that one, but I guess that day was my day.”
Witnessing the caliber of Soldiers and NCOs competing at the Battalion’s competition makes her proud, Allen said.
“They stand out from their peers because they make a deliberate choice to step out of their comfort zone,” she said. “They’re tough, mentally and physically, and ultimately these are the Soldiers and NCOs I look to, to become the next generation of stand-out leaders within the Battalion.”
Up for the challenge, the Battalions’ best will go on to display their grit and compete against the cream of the crop from other Minnesota National Guard major commands during the state competition later this week.