Cal Poly Logging Team Takes First Place in Timbersports Competition
The Cal Poly Loggers, an intercollegiate team of male and female students involved in traditional forestry field skills, won first place at the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference and Exhibition in Anderson, California. In addition, Kelly Schwenger, second-year forest and fire sciences major, earned top women’s competitor at the event.
Seven teams representing four western states competed in traditional timber sports Feb. 10-12. This was Cal Poly's first competition since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Students competed in events including underhand chopping, single bucking, double bucking, jack and jill, stock saw, choker setting, axe throw and speed axe.
The Cal Poly logging team, advised by Professor Samantha Gill and assisted by Walter Ruzzo (Natural Resources Management, ’78), competed against teams from Oregon State University; California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt; University of Nevada Reno; U.C. Berkeley; Shasta College; and Northern Arizona University.
“I am proud of the team’s hard work to earn the championship title and the outstanding way they represented Cal Poly,” said Ruzzo, who was recently named the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences honored alumnus and serves on the Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences Department’s advisory council.
The Cal Poly team includes Schwenger; fourth-year forestry and natural resources majors Dustin Morgan; Austin Law; Mark Inman; Owen Purcell; Mary Cizin; and Teoman Dogan; fourth-year architectural engineering major Emmett Huggins; first-year *forest and fire sciences major Gregory Crook; fourth-year business administration major Nate Mirizzi; fourth-year animal science major Helen Dubee: second-year forestry and natural resources major Kai Hansen; and Cal Poly alumna Nikki Bright (Environmental Management and Protection, ’21).
*The name of the forestry and fire sciences major changed with the 2021 cohort; it was previously forestry and natural resources.
Check out the team in action just after their competition win. Don't see the video below? Watch it on YouTube.
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