At a glance
÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ State Pioneer Woodsmen’s Club teams came out swinging at the opening competition for collegiate lumberjacks this past weekend! The Finger Lakes Woodsmen Team hosted the Fall Festival Woodsmen competition at Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY, on Oct. 2, 2011.
÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ State Pioneer Woodsmen’s Club teams came out swinging at the opening competition for collegiate lumberjacks this past weekend! The Finger Lakes Woodsmen Team hosted the Fall Festival Woodsmen competition at Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY, on Oct. 2, 2011.
÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ State Pioneer Woodsmen’s Club competed against 18 other teams, representing five other colleges (FLCC, Paul Smiths, Cobleskill, ESF, and Ranger School). ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ State has been training and recruiting club members since the beginning of the semester; with some first-rate returning and new talent. ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ State entered three teams: a ‘Men’s 1 team’ (varsity squad), a ‘Men’s 2 team’ (junior varsity), and a ‘Jack and Jill team’ (mixed team of half female and half male competitors).
The meet proved to be a challenge, especially with the cold rainy weather, but the ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ teams took the challenge and ended the meet with some top honors. The Jack and Jill team came out as the overall champions in their division. They also won several individual events such as: Team Captain George DeWald, electrical construction and maintenance electrician, Lawtons, NY, took first in the Log Roll. The Jack and Jill squad also took first with the team events of canoeing, crosscutting, and bow sawing.
The teams earn a percentage of points for each event, with the first place being 100 points for each event, and they compete in 16 different events. The ‘Men’s 1 team’ came in third with a total of 1,266 points, the Environmental Science and Forestry College team was second with 1,272 points, and Paul Smiths College took first with 1,380 points. It was a very tight race with the top three teams. There were also a couple of individual event wins including the team event pack board and fly-cast by Nick Wall, surveying engineering technology, Alexander, NY. The ‘Men’s 2 team’ came in sixth place overall, beating all other ‘Men’s 2 teams’ and even beating one of the other schools ‘Men’s 1 team.’
The ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ State team will immediately begin training for the next competition at Paul Smiths College on Oct. 22. The Jack and Jill team will be looking to retain their title, while the ‘Men’s 1 team’ looks to shave that mere 114 points that kept them from first place this past weekend. The ‘Men’s 2 team’ will continue to triumph other ‘Men’s 2 teams’ while whittling down the distance to the senior squads from the other schools.