You know that old saying that wood heats you twice? Once when you chop it and again when you burn it?
Well, SUNY Cobleskill’s Woodsmen’s Club was on fire Saturday when they hosted their first intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Competition at the Cobleskill Fairgrounds.
While hundreds of spectators watched, layered against the cold, the men’s and women’s teams from SUNY Cobleskill, Paul Smith’s, ESF, and Finger Lakes Community College, stripped down to t-shirts for events that included the cross-cut, the fire build, the standing block chop, the bow saw, the ax saw, the chain saw, the pulp toss and the choker set.
In the end, Paul Smith’s, where the woodsmen’s team is a longstanding tradition, won both divisions.
SUNY Cobleskill’s club is just five years old; competing for the home team Saturday were: Emily Mombourquette, Bettina Scherer, Jennifer Kurilovitch, Tina Scharf, Amy Garside, and Lindsey Williams, for the women, and for the men: David Johns, Devin Merkley, Brandon Mead, Philip West, Robert Roonety and Scott Stanley.
Kevin Poole is the club’s advisor.