Youth railsplitting competitions show promise for the future

 

[September 20, 2022] 

On Sunday afternoon, it was exciting to see just how many young people were interested in participating in the Junior Railsplitting competition at the Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Festival.

There were so many children that signed up in a wide variety of age and experience level, that competition supervisor Heidi Mueller announced that there would be two competitions. The first would be for the younger children who were less experienced and the second for the older ones.

The goal was to give ample room on the competition field for all, but also to even the playing field as far as the timed competition was concerned. Understanding that those who were new to the competition and perhaps not as strong, would be slower than the more experienced children.

Mueller called the first competition the “Junior-junior” competition and there were eight competitors.

Those who participated were Lincoln and Oliver Friedlein of Downs, Payton Norin of LeRoy, Trinity Bussan of Normal, Makieah and Murdoc Ballinger of Atlanta, Eliza Reinhart of Emden and Isabell Ortega of Peoria.

Because they kids were a little less experienced, Mueller had said the rules would be that they had a smaller log, needed to split it in half only, and they had a coach with them that could assist with setting wedges and giving proper direction on how to proceed with the split. The kids were also not permitted to use the sharp end of the ax but could use the square end on the other side of the ax head. The coaches did use the ax to get splits started from time to time.

There were a large number of visitors to the festival who came to watch the youngsters in particular and a lot of cheering and shouts of encouragement as each youth did their best to split a small log into two separate pieces.

Every youngster was determined to accomplish the goal and for the most part all did. Coaches were warned by Mueller not to allow the children to get too tired and to step in if it looked like they were becoming too exhausted.

At the end of the competition, all the logs were split in two and times were recorded. The top four came in under four minutes each with Payton Norin winning with a time of 1:47. Lincoln Friedlein finished second with a time of 2:47 and Isabell Ortega closed the deal with a time of 3:30 for third place. The third and fourth place races were tight with Oliver Friedlein finishing just one second behind Ortega at 3:31.

The top three place finishers received certificates for their outstanding performances.

In the regular Junior Split there were three competitors who were dubbed as a little more experienced than the first group and also perhaps a little older.

All three of these competitors were from Logan County and included Ryan Ballinger of Atlanta and Wyatt Madigan and Blaine Klemm both of Lincoln.

Because the competition had been divided into two groups, and time was needed for the annual reenactment of the christening of the city of Lincoln scheduled for 3 p.m., Muller said the rules would be revised for the second group. The competitors would work with a longer log than the younger group, but they would not be required to make multiple splits. For the sake of time, each competitor was required to split the log in half and stop there.

Other rules included, a clean split with the two halves clearly separated, tools to be tossed out of the work zone, and no assistance from coaches.

Again there was a lot of encouragement from the crowd that gathered. The winner was no stranger to the competition and made quick work of splitting the log cleanly. Ryan Ballinger completed the task in 2:14.

Ryan was the winner of the junior competition in 2021 and did a fine job this year of defending his title. Second place went to Wyatt Madigan and Blaine Klemm claimed the third place finish.

[Nila Smith]