The Nevada state horseshoe championships took place in Hawthorne at Lions Park where 27 pitchers from around the state gathered to participate in the biggest tournament of the season.
The pitchers were split into five divisions: Mens A, Elders A, Elders B, Mixed B and Mixed C.
The mixed B and C divisions were mostly men, however, the mixed B class featured the only woman in the competition in Carol Lanfair and the mixed C division featured the only cadet in the competition in Paxton Rather.
Because Lanfair was the only woman and Rather was the only cadet, they each were automatically declared Woman and Cadet champions, but they still competed in the tournament for a chance to win their divisions.
In the Men’s A division, Foster Kenton, Jr. repeated with another undefeated tournament run. He finished the day with a 6-0 record, winning each matchup by an average of 42.3 points.
Kenton Jr. threw 140 in his 240 attempts on his way to scoring a tournament-high 323 points.
In second place, Joseph Kalache and Dan Dunn tied with identical 4-2 records. Kalache came away with the second-place finish after winning the ringer percentage tiebreaker.
Kalache threw 73 ringers in his 240 attempts, narrowly edging out Dunn’s 72 ringers in his 240 throws.
Kalache’s two losses came against Kenton Jr. and a 1-point loss to fourth-place finisher Cody McNeely. He finished the tournament with 186 total points.
Dunn’s third-place finish came with 170 total points. His two losses came against Kalache and Kenton Jr.
In the Elders A division, Harold Holbrook was crowned the champion, finishing as the only other pitcher in the tournament with a perfect record, ending the day with a 4-0 record.
There were only three pitchers in the A division, so they played each other twice in the tournament.
Holbrook scored a total of 167 points. He threw 76 ringers in his 160 throw attempts, giving him a ringer percentage of 47.5%.
Lawrence Workman and George Mallory finished in second and third places respectively in the Elders A division.
Workman ended the tournament with a 1.5-2.5 record, tying Mallory in their first matchup and beating Mallory in their second matchup.
Workman threw 56 ringers in his 160 attempts on his way to scoring 100 total points.
Mallory ended his day with a 0.5-3.5 record, throwing 43 ringers and scoring 69 points.
In the Elders B division, all three pitchers finished with identical 2-2 records.
Larry Auchoberry took home the victory after finishing with a higher ringer percentage than Don Gore and Ken Jose, the second-and third-place finishers.
Auchoberry scored 90 points and finished with 37 ringers in his 160 throw attempts. He ended the day with a 23.13 ringer percentage.
Gore’s second-place finish came with a class-high 104 total points. He threw 28 ringers throughout the tournament, including 13 against Auchoberry in the final matchup of the day.
Jose finished the tournament with 97 points and 28 ringers. He also had his highest single-game total with 12 in the last game of the day against Auchoberry.
Carol Lanfair, the tournament’s only female, took home first place in the mixed B class.
She finished the day with a 5-1 record with her lone loss coming in a 4-point defeat at the hands of runner-up Don Brown.
Lanfair threw a class high in both total points, with 304, and ringers, with 110.
For her first-place finish, she was crowned the women’s champion and the mixed B class champion.
Her 110 ringers were double the amount of ringers as the next closest pitcher, who was Matt Jose with 55 ringers.
Brown, who finished in second place, tied Mike Dedeic with a 4-2 record.
Brown won the tiebreaker against Dedeic after finishing with a higher ringer percentage for the tournament.
He threw 41 ringers and scored 164 total points in his 240 throw attempts.
Brown started the tournament 4-0 before dropping his last two matchups against Mark Morfin and Matt Jose.
Dedeic scored 170 total points and threw 35 ringers in his 240 attempts. His two losses came against Lanfair and Brown by a combined 12 points.
In the last class of the day, teenager Paxton Rather won the top spot in the mixed C class.
He finished the tournament with a record of 5-1. Rather scored 146 points and threw 35 ringers in his 240 throw attempts.
Rather’s lone loss of the day came in a 17-23 loss against Kevin Chael.
Rather won the mixed C class and was named the cadet champion because he was the only cadet to participate in the state tournament.
Michael Workman finished as the runner-up to Rather in the mixed C class. He threw 53 ringers and finished with a class-high 164 total points.
Workman ended the day with a 4-2 record, only losing to Rather and David Skoglie.
The third-place finisher in the mixed C class was David Johnson.
Johnson finished with 154 total points and a class-high 54 ringers. He ended the tournament with a 3-3 record, tying Dennis Houston, but he won the tiebreaker with a higher ringer percentage.
Johnson and Workman went into their final matchup of the tournament against each other with identical 3-2 records. Workman won the head-to-head matchup, which boosted him into the second-place position.
Each of the class winners received a class champion patch. Kenton Jr. received a state champion patch for winning the top division of the day.
The next horseshoe tournament will be held this Saturday, Oct. 15, in Chloride, Arizona. The Chloride Old Miners Day event will take place at Chloride Community Park beginning at 10 a.m. This will be a Southern Nevada Horseshoe Pitching Series non-sanctioned, doubles event.
Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.