Pool D: Cogar Crushes Competition
American dominates exciting pool, after "chop-off" determines fourth place
LEHI, Utah—With no disrespect to American Arden Cogar, Jr.'s commanding performance to win Pool D of the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Professional Series event presented by Carhartt, Saturday's most dramatic story unfolded soon after all events concluded.
Cogar chopped and sawed his way past seven other competitors to earn 41 overall points in Pool D and capture the Carhartt Chopping Award. Despite gaining just two points on the hot saw, Australia's Dale Ryan still generated a second-place finish in the pool with 33 points in addition to the STIHL Sawing Award.
In third place and heading to Columbus, William Roberts captured his first STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series finals berth after a 29-point day. And in the extra, tie-breaking standing block event, Mike Sullivan beat Mike Eash to advance with 27 points on the day.
"I'm not worried one bit," Cogar said about his chances early on in the competition.
After a neck-and-neck race with Ryan throughout the day, West Virginia's favorite lumberjack and practicing civil defense attorney appeared calm and confident inside the competitor's tent after three events.
"The next two events are my best events, and the hot saw is like that box of chocolates," he said at the time, alluding to the notoriously-temperamental performance of custom, modified chain saws used in the event.
Ryan would soon fulfill Cogar's unfortunate prediction. Despite finishing no worse than third place in any event over the six-hour contest, the solid Aussie lost precious time attempting to start his hot saw. He only managed to earn two points after Wally Robarge had disqualified.
Asked about his intentions to post faster times than many of Friday's competitors, Ryan nodded and smiled.
"That's just it—that's what good competitors do," he said, hinting he was quite aware of the previous day's numbers.
When the ESPN2 announcers declared Eash and Sullivan would duke it out in the tie-breaker, Roberts was nowhere to be found. The former STIHL Collegiate Series competitor had scurried away from the action. Roberts locked up third place and had been more concerned with sharing the exciting news than watching the battle for fourth place.
"I was on the phone with my girlfriend and my mom and dad," the lanky Upstate New Yorker said. "They were all calling and wondering about it."
But while Roberts gabbed about qualifying for a trip to Columbus, Eash and Sullivan sweated it out again on the standing block. Fifteen one-hundredths of a second had separated the two lumberjacks in the same event earlier in the competition, but the head-to-head matchup this time was not so close. Sullivan knocked his block onto the wooden stage several strokes before Eash.
"There was no pressure—just chopping," said the former professional baseball player from the Cincinnati Reds organization. "I raised my hand because I'm just glad to be in."
Speed climb results
"This time around, I was more concerned about beating the person than my own time," he said. "I had an average run."
Clearly beating Hart to the top, when descending Knutson realized his gaff hit somewhere around the last orange line. Fearing disqualification for not tapping every 20 feet on the wooden spar, Knutson's feet hammered against the last third of the pole several times before crashing onto the safety mat.
"I wanted to make sure," he said about the added kicks.
