Women take top spot, men finish 2nd overall in 56th edition of lumberjack competition
They came, they sawed, they conquered. McGill’s Women’s 1 Woodsmen team took top spot at the 56th annual Macdonald College Woodsmen Competition, this past Saturday. The women’s team was anchored by Stephanie Bélanger-Naud, an agricultural economic student from Brigham, Quebec, who won an impressive four events. On the men’s side, McGill finished third overall.
Twenty teams from seven schools including Fleming College, Algonquin, UNB, Dalhousie, Maritime College of Forest Technology and New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College, competed in 14 different events including chopping, sawing, log throwing, pole climbing, log rolling and water boil. As would be expected at a lumberjack event, the competition also highlighted a half-dozen ways to cut wood.
An enthusiastic crowd cheered on the lumberjacks and jills over the course of the chilly day, with the Mac team garnering home-field advantage in the form of boisterous support from the sidelines.
All the cheering seemed to work, as McGill’s Women’s 1 team finished on top of the female division, a scant six points in front of the Fleming team. Stephanie Bélanger-Naud, led the way with wins in two individual, one doubles and two team events.
Perhaps Bélanger-Naud’s most impressive victory was in the snowshoe event where she posted the fastest time of all competitors (male and female) – a full 16 seconds faster than her closest competitor. Other winning events for Bélanger-Naud were the Single Buck, Underhand Chop (with sister Joséanne) and team events Swede Saw and Cross Cut with teammates Ketsia Croteau, Julie MacFarlane, Geneviève Guinos-Coté, Joséanne Bélanger-Naud and Eliane Wubbolts.
Also at the top of the score sheet were Ketsia Croteau and Eliane Wubbolts in the Quarter Split. McGill’s Women’s Team 2 finished fifth in an eight-team field.
On the men’s side, McGill’s Men’s 1 placed third with Men’s 2 finishing ninth of 12 teams. Event winners included Gill McDonell in the Snowshoe, Dominic Mercier-Provencher in the Single Buck and the Swede Saw team of Michael Breault, Cameron Burns, Mercier-Provencher, Sebastian Latraverse, Alexandre Adam and Thomas Kuipers.
Click on thumbnails to see full size photograph.
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- Mac women on the Crosscut Saw
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- Swede saw competitor
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- The sawdust was flying on Saturday
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- Victory!
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- Axe in mid-flight
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- The Swede Saw is a team event
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- Two on the saw, one spraying lubricant
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- Concentration
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- McGill’s women won the Swede Saw event
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- Mac competitor in the Underhand Chop event
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- The coup de grâce
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- Poised for the start
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- Bearing down in the Swede Saw ev ent
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- Mission accomplished
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- Putting everything into the Crosscut Saw event
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- Making sure the Swede Saw glides as smoothly as possible
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- Almost there!
