A female Army Ranger competed for the first time in one of the military’s most grueling tests of physical fitness, besting many of her male counterparts and challenging assertions by the U.S. secretary of defense regarding women’s abilities to perform at the highest levels.

First Lt. Gabrielle White and her teammate, Capt. Seth Deltenre, placed 14th out of 52 teams during the weekend’s Best Ranger Competition, a three-day event in Georgia at which some of the Army’s most elite soldiers compete in land navigation, marksmanship and an array of physically strenuous tasks.

Lieutenant White was the first woman to participate in the four decades that the event has been held. Her team’s achievement — she and Captain Deltenre finished among the top competitors after 36 other pairs were eliminated — came less than a decade after women were first granted access to the Army’s Ranger School, a rigorous monthslong course with a high rate of failure.

Some saw Lieutenant White’s performance at the competition as a rejoinder, however unintended, to comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth questioning the abilities of women in the military.

“I saw a three-day public display of what we’ve been saying for 10 years,” said Kris Fuhr, a West Point graduate who was instrumental in integrating women into the Ranger School at Fort Benning in 2015.

Mr. Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, has spoken critically of the inclusion of women in combat roles.