Noah Flower & Oliver Friedlein - 2nd place tie, William Dubbelde - 1st place and Buea Ford - 3rd place.

 

Junior Split encourages youth participation in festival competitions

[September 18, 2023]  Ten youngsters competed in the Junior Rail split on Sunday afternoon. For some of the kids this was a first-time effort, and some of them were a little more experienced.

The youth competition was also a place to see the generations of familiar names that will carry on the tradition of railsplitting into the future.

Among the competitors was Oliver and Lincoln Friedlein. They are the fourth generation of Friedlein, to compete at the annual festival. Those who are long time festival goers will possibly remember another Oliver Friedlein. He was the first-generation competitor who encouraged and competed against his son and grandson, Chris and Cody Friedlein. Oliver and Lincoln, sons of Cody, both did very well in the junior event.

In past years, Ryan Ballinger has competed and won in the Junior event. This year, he moved over to the amateur split, but the Ballinger name was still in the competition with his little sis Makiyah swinging the ax. Makiyah was coached by her dad Casey and her brother.

William Dubbelde is also a second-generation splitter who did a very impressive job with his dad Lawrence as his coach.

This year there were two local boy scouts who participated, Beau Ford and Blaine Klemm. Ford was quite successful, coming in third in his first attempt at a splitting competition.

Peyton Norin, whose father is Jon Norin also put on a good show for the audience.

Others that competed were Dean Jenvey, Eliza Reinhart, and Noah Flowers.

The junior split is a bit simpler than the Professional and Amateur splits. The logs the kids are given are shorter, and the requirement is that each log be split into two pieces. The kids can also have coaches on hand, who are allowed to lend help as needed throughout the competition.

Heidi Mueller is one of the officials of the splits. She noted that the goal of the junior split is to make it fun for the kids, thus encouraging them to continue competing in future years.

This year, there was a runaway winner. William Dubbelde won by a wide margin over the other nine competitors.

The second-place finish was not as cut and dried. Ended with very close times. Mueller and the other volunteer officials discussed the finishes saying that the two boys involved, Oliver Friedlein and Noah Flowers had done well, but one had received a little more help than the other. But, they were otherwise so close, that it was just the right thing to call it a tie for second place.

Therefore, there were four winners in the top three places. William Dubbelde finished first, Oliver Friedlein and Noah Flowers finished second, and local boy scout Beau Ford finished third.

[Nila Smith]