Toni Wombaker, a Pahrump resident, buried her competition and successfully defended her mucking title at the Nevada State Mining Competition during Jim Butler Days in Tonopah over the weekend.
Every year for the past 45 years the Nevada State Mining Championships are held in Tonopah and the competition consists of hand drilling and mucking.
Hand drilling is the use of a steel chisel and hammer to drill a hole in stone. Mucking is the art of filling a mining cart with dirt. The women fill half ton or half the cart and the men fill a one ton or a full cart.
Wombaker was one of two Pahrump women that participated in the mining competitions. Deanna Floyd finished in second place in the singles competition.
Last year the champion mucker set a state record in mucking singles (2 minutes, 1.41 seconds). This year, Wombaker competed against three other woman in the single competition. She won $300 for her efforts and was behind her record time by 3 seconds.
Wombaker said a pair of factors slowed her down this year.
“I had problems training this year,” Wombaker said. “I was sick just eight days before the contest. I would like to think my time is slower because the dirt was heavier this year due to rain.”
Wombaker trains by filling wheelbarrows or just moving dirt. She highly recommends that anyone who undertakes mucking trains for at least a month prior to the event.
“I had my sister train for this event by sticking weights at the end of a shovel,” she said. “I even invited Deanna Floyd and my sister to train with me and we moved some dirt thanks to Mike Floyd, who generously donated the dirt.”
Wombaker also excels in team mucking. This year she teamed up with Christine Perchetti, her older sister and the two of them smoked their competition (1:01.28) and together split the $300 prize.
The sister team beat a far younger team from the University of Nevada School of Mining.
“The competition was so close, that we beat them, by my estimation, by just a shovel,” Wombaker said.
When asked why she mucked every year, she replied, “This is my way of keeping history alive and I guess I just got this passion from my father (Bob Perchetti), who started this 45 years ago.”
Wombaker is married to Tim Wombaker, principal at Rosemary Clarke Middle School. Floyd is married to Mike Floyd, a member of the Nye County school board.