At a glance
Alfred State’s Pioneer Woodsmen’s Team recently hosted the second-annual Pioneer Games on the Alfred campus, and brought home a first-place victory overall with one of its four teams. A total of 19 teams with 133 participants met for competition.
Alfred State’s Pioneer Woodsmen’s Team recently hosted the second-annual Pioneer Games on the Alfred campus, and brought home a first-place victory overall with one of its four teams. A total of 19 teams with 133 participants met for competition, with Finger Lakes College, Paul Smith’s College, State University of New York at Cobleskill, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the Ranger School all represented.
Team members competed in 16 different disciplines across singles events, double events, triple events, and team events. From fly casting to single buck, to “crosscut to hell” and log splitting, the competitors went head-to-head in a point battle, with each event winner bringing 100 points home to the team. Alfred State put four teams on the field: a men’s 1 team (equivalent of varsity squad), men’s 2 team, men’s 3 team and women’s team. Men’s 1 team brought home the proverbial gold with 1,401 points, followed by Paul Smith’s and SUNY ESF, with Alfred State men’s 2 team coming in fourth overall (leading the pack for all men’s 2 teams as well as beating half of men’s 1 teams). Alfred’s women’s team took a very respectable third place overall, nipping at the heels of Cobleskill in second and Finger Lakes College in first.
Participants were: Sarah Bauman, Oley, PA; Mike Driscoll, Skaneateles, NY; Stevie Ray Foit, North Collins, NY; Tara Feinburg, Cohoes, NY; Joe Francese, Levittown, NY; Dan Giblin, Chenango Valley, NY; Paul Glover, Portville, NY; Dylan Heaney, Syracuse, NY; Amanda Hoiles, Shortsville, NY; Emily Hoover, Gurham, NY; Greg Kruppa, North Collins, NY; Chris Locke, LeRoy, NY; Ali Maher, Phelps, NY; Kevin Paul, Webster, NY; Keith Poliey, Greenwood Lake, NY; Marc Poliey, Greenwood Lake, NY; Morgan Presher, LeRoy, NY; Spencer Sagneri, Rochester, NY; Chris Savosh, New Paltz, NY; Warren Sutterby, Sterling, NY; Natasha Talbot, Little Falls, NY; Billy VanNostrand, Gloversville, NY; Nick Wall, Alexander, NY; and Benjamin Wood, Hector, NY.
The Pioneer Woodsmen are not taking a break after a well-fought competition; on the contrary, they are training for their Spring Meet - the collegiate timbersports equivalent of the Super Bowl. Alfred State will take two teams to Dartmouth, NH, for this year’s Spring Meet in late April, where they will compete against colleges from all over the East Coast and Canada.
Pictured are some of the Alfred entrants (left to right): Team Adviser Scott Bingham, Mark Poliey, Nick Wall, Amanda Hoiles, Natasha Talbot, Billy Vannostrand, Paul Glover, Spencer Sagneri, and Joe Francese.