Syracuse.com - The athletes have fire, axes, saws: ESF, 8 others battle in lumberjack games (photos)

[HuntingNY-News]

At the annual East Coast Lumberjack Roundup in Syracuse, the competition is in logging. Watch video

Nine colleges met this weekend in Syracuse in one of the more unusual sports around: timber sports.

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse hosted the annual East Coast Lumberjack Roundup Saturday at its Tully Field Station.

Eight Upstate colleges competed, as well as a team from Penn State.

The ESF women's and men's teams each placed second.

Along with saw and axe events, there's a fire-building competition. Each team member races to boil water with just an axe, a block of wood and three matches. The winner this year was a boil in less than three minutes.

Created in 1912, the ESF Woodsmen Team is the oldest student organization at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The tradition of the team originates from the old-time logging techniques which are now practiced as a sport.

The ESF Woodsmen compete six to eight times per year, traveling across the Northeast and Canada.

Here's a video from an October competition:

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