XENIA — Call it the Moo Too movement, maybe?
With a potential record-setting field throughout, the high school division’s female competitors nabbed five of the seven calves in the annual Greene County Calf Scramble.
With a possible record entry list of 120 kids ranging in age from 9-13 in the four Kiddie Calf Scramble events, and another record 13 high school competitors (seven boys and six girls), the competitors provided plenty of excitment to the near-capacity crowd who cheered them on from the Greene County Fairground grandstand and from their pick-up trucks in the infield and on the track.
To start things off, nine-year-olds Lucas Doggett, Ava Carroll, Jace Withers and Bradley Hurst were the first four in order to chase down a calf, grab onto an adhesive patch that was on the cow’s back, then race back to the center circle.
The finishing order in the 10-year-old scramble event was: Feenux Parrish, Colton Midlam, Wesley Rohler and Lyriq Stollings.
Perhaps providing a preview of the upcoming high school event, Madeline Reuter was first in the event for 11-year-olds, followed by Trevor Moore, Colten Doggett and Chloe Trimbach.
Alex Horney nabbed the first calf sticker in the 12-13 year olds scramble, followed by Layne Applegate, Ben Bayer and Otis Boyette.
In the high school scramble, where the competitors got to keep their cows in order to raise and groom them for showing in 2020, five out of six females in a field of 13 grabbed a calf, properly applied a harness around the cow’s head, then pulled the not too helpful animal into the center ring.
An A&L Sanitation water truck emptied one nearly full tank of water onto the fairgrounds track, then went back and got another full tank and sprayed that entire tank onto the grounds as well, to get things good and sloppy. It was estimated that nearly 4,000 gallons of water had been placed into the pen area. On Monday, sitting water could still be found in the track infield.
The high school competition had to be halted eight minutes into the chase when a calf reportedly stepped on the neck of Cedarville High student Avery Jeffers who went momentarily limp on the fairgrounds track surface. EMTs were quickly on the scene and were able to revive Jeffers and get him back on his feet. The 15-year-old Jeffers then opted to walk over to the ambulance under his own power.
Jeffers was treated and observed at a local hospital as a precautionary measure, but reports said Jeffers was OK.
When the event resumed some eight minutes later, Greeneview’s Tori Chaney brought in the first calf. The Greeneview Ram broke a string of five consecutive years where a Cedarville High School competitor had brought in the first calf.
With the contestants’ jerseys covered in mud, it was difficult to identify the seven winners.
Unofficially, it was Greeneview’s Ellie Harlow bringing in the next calf roughly three minutes after Chaney. Beavercreek’s Justin Weckler was close after Harlow for the third catch of the evening.
Fairborn Skyhawk Abby Jamison brought her calf into the circle three minutes later, followed by Katlyn Eavers of Jamestown, Grady Page of the Greene County Career Center, and … to chants of “Ka-tie! Ka-tie! Ka-tie!” from her friends and family … Fairborn’s Katie Heider brought in the final calf.
Due to a rules infraction, where an adult illegally removed Gunnar Gannon’s harness from a calf that had quite literally slipped away from his grasp, there was a possibility of potentially awarding Gannon with a calf of his own for his valiant efforts. As of Monday afternoon, no report of a decision had been announced, however.
The singing trio known as The Firehouse Friends — Scott Baldwin, Chris Gillaugh and Kirk Keller — sang the National Anthem before the day’s events.
Forty nine area businesses sponsored the annual event, with the calves purchased from Campbell Company, Twin Maple Farms and Morris Farms, LLC. Anderson Custom Raising provided the calves for the four kiddie scramble events.
