By John Bombatch
XENIA — Kassidy Hargrave celebrated the first day of the Greene County Fair with 200 pounds of “Lemonade.”
Covered in mud and barely able to stand, Hargrave roped the third and final cow in Sunday’s final Calf Scramble event.
“I’m tired and out of breath, and very hot, but I’m super excited,” Hargrave of Jamestown said, while a fair official offered her two bottles of ice-cold water. “This is the second year doing it. I’m just so proud of myself, because I knew I could do it inside me. I finally caught my Lemonade.”
Your what?
“Me and my mom made a bet last year, that if I caught one then, I would get a frozen lemonade from the midway,” she explained. “So this year, I said if I got one, his name was gonna be ‘Lemonade.’” Kassidy’s mom is Myranda Rowland, also of Jamestown.
Cedarville resident Jason Mahaffey was the youngest of the six Calf Scramble entrants at 14 years of age, but he was the first to tackle a calf, properly place a halter around the cow’s head, and then pull the animal into the center circle.
“It’s hard. Haltering the calf is the hardest part, because you have to get it on them just right. But once you get them haltered, you can just pull them right up there,” Mahaffey said between deep breaths. He too was exhausted after his ordeal.
The second contestant to bring in a cow was Cheyenne Jeffers, also of Cedarville.
“Honestly, I was terrified. I had so much adrenaline in me, but that was a lot of fun,” Jeffers said. “I did it last year, but I didn’t get a cow. I think (that experience) helped me this time. I was still scared, but it was better than last year.”
Sydney Trimbach of Cedarville, Nick Shaw of Jamestown, and Brad Eakle, also of Jamestown were in the final event as well.
There were four Kiddie Calf Scrambles on Sunday night, too, but the younger kids merely had to be the first to pull an adhesive tag off the back of one of the younger calves, then run back to the center circle with their tag. No hauling big 200-lb. animals for them.
Jaace Puttin, Blake Midlam, Dean Bogan and Sydney Hawkins emerged as the event winners in the scramble for 8-9 year olds.
Eli Campbell, Colten Doggett, Gavin Dailey and Lia Johnson earned awards in the 10-year-old’s event.
Masin Bowen, Gunnar Gannon, Kelsi Adams and Karlie Harlow earned awards for the 11-year-old’s event scramble, and the 12-13 year olds event winners were Caleb Allen, Kane Odon, Dessie Shepherd and Gabe Potter.
