Top left: Paige Everson sends one of her competitors into the drink. Lower left: Lucy Shaw and Robin Henrickson battle to advance in the U-13 girl’s division at the Lumberjack World Championships. Above: Getting all of the North Shore Rollers together for a picture is all but impossible. Here are most of the team that participated in the Lumberjack World Championships. (L-R) Jenny Atkinson, Brandi Colman, Paige Everson, Taylor Everson, Lucy Shaw, Bear Atkinson, Dominick Wilson and Luke Johnson.
Hayward Wisconsin’s Lumberjack Bowl was filled with more than 12,000 spectators on Saturday night, July 26, as people came from near and far to watch the best log rollers, boom runners, pole climbers, saw and axe men and women compete for over $50,000 in prize money at the 54th Lumberjack World Championships.
But earlier on Thursday and Friday, with little fanfare, amateur log rollers were competing as hard as their counterparts to see who could earn the title of World Champion for their age group. The competition was fierce.
Competing in the U-7 class for the North Shore Rollers was Taylor Everson, Allie Duclos, and Lexi Plummer. While all of these kids rolled like champions, Taylor came away with the top local finish, earning 5th place in a deep and talented pool of rollers.
Brandi Collman had the tournament of her life, placing third in the U-10 girls’ bracket. Brandi’s little brother Tanner rolled in the boys’ U-10 division and fought hard but couldn’t make it to the finals. Although Brandi, Tanner and their sister Amber are from Cromwell, they compete with the North Shore Rollers. Their aunt is Julie Collman, who helps train the local team.
The North Shore Rollers were well represented in the U-13 age group. Just missing out on a podium finish was Dominick Wilson, last year’s boys’ U-10 world champion. Dominick finished fourth place overall. Luke Johnson also rolled very well, winning a couple of exciting matches and losing two matches.
Coming all the way from Texas, two-time world age group champion Lucy Shaw managed to place 5th in the U-13 girls’ division. She beat best friend Paige Everson in an exciting match and also edged Robin Henrikson in another duel of local rollers. Amber Collman also competed well in the U-13 bracket.
Because of wins, Paige also earned 5th place in the competition. All of these girls rolled well against kids who, as they are getting older, are becoming more serious, training harder and in some cases, being coached on a year-round basis.
In the women’s semi-pro division Wellesley Howard- Larsen was down 2-1 against Katherine Glodoski of Hayward and came back to take the match 3-2 for third place. At age 14 Wellesley is two years younger than her nearest competitor in this division.
Competing in the professional division, Jessica Berg- Collman had a great time in her first boom run to get into the semi-final, but she just missed getting into the final top six, finishing 7th overall.
These athletes show speed, strength, concentration and extraordinary balance as they sprint across eight unevenly sized slippery logs that spin when stepped on and are still bobbing and moving when they make the turn on the dock and sprint back to the dock they started on. Crashes are many, spectacular, and injuries are common. A crowd favorite, this competition isn’t for the faint of heart.
Because Jessica finished 4th last year in the boom run she was selected to compete with a team that included a boom running relay event, a standing chopping block event, cross cut saw event, underhand chopping event and pole climbing. Jessica’s team finished second overall to finish in the money.
Multiple boom running world champion Jenny Atkinson (and Clearwater cabin owner) didn’t compete in the boom run this year because she didn’t have time to train for it, she said. Atkinson, also a multiple world champion in professional women’s log rolling did compete in that event but failed to advance to the medal rounds against ladies half of her age. Jessica also competed in log rolling but also failed to advance to the final round.
All in all the North Shore Rollers fared very well against kids and professionals who hail from all over the world.
More importantly the kids showed great sportsmanship and made a host of new friends.
Leave a Reply