Again this weekend, professional athletes from the La Crosse Area made an impressive showing at the 17th annual La Crosse Open event.
The professional event began in the early afternoon on La Crosse’s north side with last weekend’s finals match-up, Connor Birdsong and Garrick Birdsong. Garrick defeated Connor with a score of 3 to 1. Following the early loss, Connor battled his way to third place, winning falls against every opponent. Shane Burns made his 2017 debut at the event and took a hard loss to eventual winner, Tanner Hallett, in a close 3 to 2 match.
Onalaska’s Katie Rick competed in the professional women’s divison. Rick took the runner-up spot after a five fall match on the four log with current world champion, Ellie Davenport.
According to current written records, no amateur logrolling match had ever exceeded one hour before today’s match between U10 Girls Libby Magnone and Holmen’s Aini Anderson. Today, the two girls demonstrated stellar skills for 62 minutes straight and most importantly congratulated one another with a big hug after their match. “It was pretty amazing,” Anderson said after the excitement, “but I’m bummed I got blisters on my foot!”
Other amateur highlights include Grace Berg’s astounding fifth place finish in U10 girls, Eli Neve’s second place in U7, Tre Owen’s U17 third place, Maggie Amundson and Larsen Birdsong’s U17 second place finishes, and wins from Livi Pappadopoulos and Kody Koblitz.
Coulee Region Logrolling 