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 This year there were seven competitors in the event.
Those competitors were Jonathan Norin of LeRoy, Cody Friedlein of
Downs, Zach Darnall of Bloomington, Curtis Prochnow of Downs, Evan
Coombs of Bloomington, Lawrence Dubbelde of Mackinaw and Casey
Ballinger of Atlanta.
For this competition the participants were required to split a large
log into eight rails. The rules included that each rail had to be a
clean split clearly separated from the others and all tools had to
be removed from the immediate work area. A timing judge was assigned
for every two competitors. When the work was done, the competitor
was to call out time and then the judge would inspect the area and
the split rails. If tools were not removed from the work area, the
competitor received a 30 second penalty added to their finished
time. If a rail was not cleanly cut from the others it would not be
counted as a completed rail and the competitor would be disqualified
for not having completed the task before calling time.
As the competition began, Jonathan Norin and Casey Ballinger started
with a vengeance and ended fast. At one point it was anyone’s guess
as to which one would finish first, but in the end, Ballinger won
out with a very fast time of 6:39. Norin came in second but also
received a 30 second penalty when he missed removing one tool from
the work zone, making his finished time close to 10 minutes.
The third place finisher came in at 11:50 and it seemed to go
downhill from there. Evan Coombs finished in 16:35 and Lawrence
Dubbelde finished at 20:50.
The biggest challenge for the splitters was the condition of the log
they were working with. Some were straight grained and split well
while others were not straight, and it almost appeared that the log
itself was made of tougher stuff than the others. Such was the fate
for Cody Friedlein and Zach Darnall. Both men labored and labored to
get eight rails from their log. Knowing they were going to finish in
the last two places, Friedlein suggested to Darnall that they both
call time at the exact same time so as to finish with a tie for the
last place. For a moment it appeared that Darnall would take the
deal, but then he hit his log again, and the competition was back
on. In the end, Darnall finished his rails at 26:10 and Freidlein
finished at 27:40.
At the award presentation, Bob Rankin, who acts as
announcer and assists Superintendent (and daughter) Heidi Mueller
throughout the competition, said it was good to be able to give
Ballinger the championship certificate.
Rankin reminded the audience that last year the young man from
Atlanta finished well ahead of everyone else, just as he did this
year, but had to be disqualified because he lacked one clean split.
It was a matter of nerves and excitement for Ballinger last year, as
he would have had plenty of time to check and deliver that final
blow to separate the last two parts and still win, but he was
excited and just missed it.
This year, Ballinger had plenty of support from his family standing
on the sidelines, including son Ryan who kept shouting out key
reminders, “watch for splinters” meaning the thin threads of wood
that technically hold the two logs together. “Toss the tools,” and
of course the almost nonstop yells from the rest of the family “go
dad, go dad,” rang across the entire competition area.
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When Ballinger threw up his arms he was all smiles as he quickly
noted he was indeed the first one done, and indeed it was all good,
no tools in the work zone and no splinters between two rails.
At the award, his judge congratulated Ballinger and
said he was sure thankful that he had not had to disqualify the
Logan County man this year.
The top four finishers were joined by all the other
competitors for a group photo, then young Ryan Ballinger asked if
LDN would take a photo of him and his dad as the Junior and
Professional Champs of the 2022 Railsplitting competition.
It was a proud moment for both the competitors as well as for the
Ballinger's wife/mom and the other kids/siblings.
Throughout the weekend there are a number of smaller contests that
competitors can participate in. As each winner is determined, a
numerical score is assigned to the win.
At the end of the Professional Split, Mueller tallied
up the scores from all those competitions, and the overall 2022
Splitter was Jonathan Norin of LeRoy. He was presented with a
certificate and a cash prize.
At the end of the professional split, the competitions for the
weekend were done. Guests still had some time to mingle and stroll
through the grounds visiting the various campsites, but soon after
the end of the competitions, everyone began backing up and putting
away for the end of the 51st successful National Railsplitting
Festival in Lincoln.
Organizers and planners were encouraged by the good turnout of
visitors, and also with the number of people that participated in
the competitions. They are already looking to next year, and hoping
to continue building on a long-standing tradition in Lincoln and
Logan County.
[Nila Smith]
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