Applause erupted from the crowd at this year's Mock Prison Riot as the first-ever all female team took off in the skills competition last weekend.  They battled against their male counterparts from tactical teams from across the country.  And they held their own, according to spectators and the five women from Michigan who joined forces to compete in West Virginia.

"I can tell you they carried their weight," said Steve Morrison, Executive Director of the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization, the agency that hosts the annual Riot at the former West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville.  "They did well."

The women agree.

"We actually beat a couple of male teams in the shooting competition, so I think we did fairly well," said Julie Whitney, a correctional officer at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan, who competed alongside Liza Garcia, Sue Wellington, Pilar Martinez and Michelle Powell.

Whitney is a member of one of the Michigan Department of Corrections' 22 emergency response teams, which are spread throughout the state.  She is one of over 50 correctional officers from Michigan who made the trek to West Virginia this year to compete at the Mock Riot.

The Mock Riot is a great opportunity for his emergency response teams to get some hands-on training, said Ken MacEachern, who oversees Michigan's emergency response teams.  He explained that, while the DOC sends as many folks to the Riot as it can afford, the officers like the event so much that some of them even pay their own way.

"We had twice as many go [this year] as we could pay for," MacEachern said.  "Whatever it takes to get down there, they'll do it."

MacEachern said that many officers car-pooled, drove down there and bunked together - three or four to a hotel room.  While he regrets that it is not financially feasible for the agency to send everyone to the Riot who wants to go, he is happy that he can at least reward some of his ERT members - who volunteer their time to be part of the team - with a trip to Moundsville.

"These officers don't get much in the way of kudos or pats on the back.  This is just a little extra thing," said MacEachern.  "It's a morale booster.  It's a benefit."

MacEachern said he was proud to have a group of females from his department competing together in the skills competition, before joining the rest of the representatives from Michigan for the remainder of the training exercises.

"I sent them down because I though they could compete and show what they are capable of, no matter if it's an all-female or male team," said MacEachern.

Nonetheless, the women made Mock Riot history by banding together to became the first all-female team to enter the two-day skills competition, which consists of shooting drills and an obstacle course.

According Morrison, the women received a very positive response.

"They were the very last team [to go] in the skills competition and I was not aware that there was a female team," said Morrison.  "I sort-of did a double take and ran down the course to watch them take off and the crowd just went crazy."

Morrison said that the support the women received from their fellow competitors was tremendous.

"They were there to cheer them on every step of the way," he said.  "The females got the most applause and the most yelling and screaming from all of the guys."

What particularly impressed Morrison was how well the women were able to work together.

"It was just something that is almost indescribable - the camaraderie, the teamwork," said Morrison.

The women agree that it was their ability to work as a team that helped them to succeed during the competition.

"We couldn't have gotten through it without the teamwork we had," said Whitney. 

According to Whitney, the women had to rely on each other during the obstacle course, which had nearly 20 different elements that required upper body strength, including a rope climb, a Jacob's ladder and a net crawl.

While the obstacle course was tough, team member Martinez, a correctional officer at Parr Highway Correctional Facility in Adrian, Michigan, said that teamwork was most important during one of the shooting scenarios.

According to Martinez, the exercise required that the competitors carry 70-lb. bags, which represented human hostages, over 200 yards.

"We had to form together as a team more than some of the other male teams because we don't have the [upper body] strength," Martinez said.

Rather than each team member struggling to carry the bags individually, they all pitched in and hauled the bags together.

"We all came together as one group and did it a lot better than the guys did," said Whitney.

"I thought it was outstanding for us to all come together like this and I am looking forward to us coming together next year and doing it again," said Powell, who is also a correctional officer at Thumb Correctional Facility.

Morrison anticipates that some other female correctional officers from different emergency response teams may follow in Michigan's footsteps next year and enter into the competition as all-female teams.

"That is typically what happens," Morrison said.  "Once somebody starts something, other teams try to follow in place."

Whitney, too, suspects that the women from Michigan may have sparked something at the Mock Prison Riot.

"There were a lot of other females from different teams that came up to us [and] said that was the best thing they had ever seen," said Whitney.  "We had more heart and soul to everything we did."