Above: The North Shore Rollers are all smiles after the Namekagon River Roll Off. Starting in front L-R: Alexis Plummer, Alley Duclos, Taylor Everson, and Dominic Wilson. In back are Gary Plummer and Paige Everson. Left: Gary Plummer, on the left, gets ready to send his competitor into the water. Photos courtesy of Andrea Peterson
On Sunday, July 15 a group of North Shore Rollers traveled to Hayward, Wisconsin to compete in the Namekagon River Roll Off.
It was a great day on the river for Gary Plummer, who placed first in a broad field of U7 coed boys and girls.
Plummer never lost a fall until his championship match against Oconomowoc’s Roehl Gary. With the match at two falls apiece, Plummer fought hard for the last step, plunging Gary into the water and claiming his first ever first place finish.
With this win, Plummer has put himself in a strong position to be on the podium in the upcoming lumberjack world championships that will be held in the same venue in less than two weeks.
Meanwhile, Gary’s sister, Alexis Plummer also had a great day while competing in the U10 girls’ division.
Alexis had to beat three fine rollers to get to the final where she lost 3-0 to Libby Magnone. Although she was shut out in falls, Alexis took Magnone to the #5 log, the smallest log used in competition.
Competing in the U13 girls’ division, Taylor Everson rolled against Hayward’s Avery Poppe, losing the first match to Poppe. That put Taylor in the consolation bracket where she had to fight her way through a deep field of strong competitors. Taylor ended up competing for third place against Suzanna Priest, losing 2-3 to end up in fourth place.
Coming off back-to-back wins in recent tournaments, Alley Duclos won her first match in the U13 girl’s bracket, and then received a first-round bye to put her in the championship match.
Duclos met Hayward’s Avery Poppe and won an exciting final 3-2 to take her third straight title.
There was a small but very competitive group of boys competing in the boys’ round-robin U17 field. Coming off of last week’s win at the La Crosse tournament, Dominic Wilson was ready, but he lost his first match to someone he knows well and competed against many times, Dominick Magnone of Wauconda, Illinois. Magnone beat Wilson in another great match between the two, taking the 3-2 victory.
Next Wilson rolled against Carson Popoure of Houston, Texas.
Popoure is formerly of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and a great roller.
Wilson and Popoure would battle to a 2-2 tie before Dominic put Popoure in the water to take a huge upset win.
Said Wilson after the match, “If there is one match I ever wanted to win, this was the one.”
Due to the tournament format where accumulative falls are counted, Popoure placed first with Magnone second and Wilson third.
Paige Everson made her semi pro debut in the U17 girls’ division. For the first time, Paige competed while rolling in spikes. With only two girls in the field, Paige rolled against friend and fellow competitor Emma Magnone, with Magnone taking the win in a fun match that was ruled a practice.
Both Magnone and Paige then took off their spikes and rolled against other U17 girls with Paige beating fellow North Shore Roller Amber Collman of Cromwell to take third place.
The North Shore Roller Team is sponsored by Hungry Jack Lodge, Grand Marais State Bank, Camp Chow, North Shore Title, Glenn Peterson Construction, The Wunderbar, The Big Lake, Gunflint Mercantile, Java Moose, Timberwolff Realty, Hedstrom Lumber Company Inc., Northstar Cabling and Grand Marais Lions Club.
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