A strong wind whipped the water and log rollers at the Midwest Logrolling Championships held June 28 in Madison, Wisconsin. Wellesley Howard Larsen (left) of the Cook County Community YMCA North Shore Rollers sends Hayward’s Maggie Penning into the water in the championship match. Penning won 3 falls to 1.
Competition was hot and heavy at the Midwest Logrolling championships held Saturday, June 28, 2014, in Madison, Wisconsin as a big field of amateurs and pros competed at Brittingham Park.
The meet was also used as a venue to raise funds for Huntington’s disease.
Representing the Cook County YMCA North Shore Rollers, Wellesley Howard-Larsen finished second in the U-17 semi-pro division, losing 3-1 in falls to Maggie Penning of Hayward, Wisconsin in an exciting championship match.
Eight-time world champion Jenny Atkinson, age 40, a part-time Cook County resident and the person who brought log rolling to the North Shore, placed 4th in the women’s professional logrolling championship.
Defending logrolling world champion Gretchen Green beat a stacked field of pros to win the logrolling title.
The next day she came back to take the boom running title in about the same time as the men’s boom running winner Spencer Wilkerson from Madison.
Log rolling role models
Cook County participants were excited to watch defending men’s World Champion J.R. Salzman roll through a deep men’s field to take the men’s logrolling title. It was a tough battle, but nothing like the ones he faced in Iraq.
On December 19, 2006, J.R. was scouting for an improvised explosive device (IEDs) in the lead Humvee of a convoy traveling through Baghdad. His vehicle was struck by an explosively formed penetrator and his right arm was severed below the elbow and his left hand was pulverized by the blast. He also suffered from a traumatic brain injury. When he was told his legs weren’t damaged he told the medic, “at least I will be able to log roll.”
Salzman recovered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was fitted with a prosthetic arm, which he uses to help balance on a log. He suffers from short-term memory loss and he is considered 100 percent disabled. He didn’t come back from Iraq whole, but he’s still a whole lot better than the young rollers who try to unseat him. And he is moving on with his education, hoping to become a teacher.
At the end of the competition, meet organizer Shan Verstegen (second at World Championships last year in log rolling) announced that the event had raised more than $10,000 for the Huntington’s disease Society of America Great Lakes Region. Money raised during the event will help local Midwest families struggling with this neurological disease and aid in a research for a cure.
In other good news Shana, who was told when she was young that she had a 50-50 chance of contracting Huntington’s, announced that she was recently tested and the tests came back negative. Cheers and tears of joy followed.
The event ended with about 250,000 people lined up on the shore to watch one of the biggest firework displays in the country. It was an early July 4th celebration, a great conclusion to a great event and fitting that Salzman’s win ended the day.
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