Condon-native John Parcell competing in the underhand chop during the 2017 Western Collegiate Stihl Timbersports Championship. While Parcell said this was one of his weakest events, he swept this event and the other three in the competition winning the championship by six points.
John Parcell felt his standing block chop was his best event of the four at the 2017 Western Collegiate Stihl Timbersports Championship because, "it was pretty quick and I hit my lines. There were no big miss-hits."
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. - For the second year in a row, 2013 Seeley-Swan High School graduate John Parcell of Condon won the 2017 Western Collegiate Stihl Timbersports Championship April 19-21 at Northern Arizona University.
Parcell will be one of eight collegiate athletes who will chop and saw their way towards the title of Best Lumberjack in the USA at the Stihl Timbersports 2017 U.S. Championships in Milwaukee, Wisc. July 28-30.
"I hoped I could do it again," said Parcell who was nominated by the University of Montana (UM) Woodsman Team to be their representative. He was their best lumberjack in the underhand, stock saw, standing block chop and single buck. "Everything went really well."
Parcell said this season he focused on his weakest events from last year's competition, underhand and single buck. His practice paid off when he took first place in all four events. He competed against athletes from six other schools and beat his nearest competitor Seth Probert of Flathead Valley Community College by six points.
"It felt pretty good because I got to redeem myself from Chicago [Stihl Timbersports U.S. Championship] last year," said Parcell.
Last year at the national competition Parcell did not do as well as he had hoped. He said a lot of it had to do with nerves and because of his ax.
"I hate to blame the ax but it was hung crooked and was out of line with the handle. That might have affected the outcome but you can't blame the ax for everything," said Parcell.
Parcell said he is going to continue to focus on the underhand chop and single buck in his training for the U.S. Championship. He will face Andrew Sargent from West Virginia University and Kemp Wilson of Clemson University of South Carolina who are also returning to the U.S. Championship for the second year in a row. Sargent placed third in the collegiate finals.
Stihl will live stream the competition at the end of July. To watch Parcell compete visit https://www.stihlusa.com/stihl-timbersports/schedules/
Reader Comments(0)