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 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.
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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] |
