Clutch throws make Duerr a horseshoes world champion
WORLD HORSESHOE PITCHING TOURNAMENT
The title of world champion is sounding pretty good these days for Dustin Duerr of Medford.
In his fourth trip to the World Horseshoe Pitching Championships, Duerr won the men’s D1 division championship by going 11.5-3.5 in his 15 games played July 20-22 in Lansing, Mich.
Duerr was a half-game ahead of runner- up Sean Smith of Texas and thirdplace finisher Kevin Thomas of Georgia, who both went 11-4 in the round-robin competition that took place inside the Lansing Convention Center.
The competition was tight throughout as Duerr came from behind to earn eight of his wins. He won four matchups by one point to go along with the tie on his final day of pitching.
Duerr earned a trophy, a patch and a cash prize of $500. More important to him was the ability to share the experience with friends who were part of Wisconsin’s 57 participants who were among the 947 entrants in the event, which actually takes nearly two weeks to complete as competitors with the highest ringer percentages in the divisional tournaments are brought back for the overall championship competition in week two.
“I really wanted this. I’ve been playing my whole life,” said the 37-year-old Duerr, who first got into the sport when he was 10. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s one big family basically. (The trophy) is awesome, but there’s so much more to it than the trophies or the money or anything like that. We definitely don’t do it for the money.”
To qualify for the world championships, conducted by the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association, throwers must compete in four state-sanctioned tournaments in a one-year period. Their ringer percentage then determines which division they compete in at the championships. For Duerr, meeting the four-tournament requirement was no problem as he said he competes about 30 weekends in a year and events are played in a wide variety of locales.
With an entry ringer percentage of 35.66%, Duerr went into D1 which is the fourth-highest ranked men’s division. In previous years, he’s been in the second division all the way down to the 10th division.
Entry percentages for the 16 participants in D1 ranged from 35.1% to 36.93%, forecasting a close competition.
A game in the world championships consists of singles competition with 40 throws per player. A ringer is worth three points and one point is recorded for horseshoes touching or leaning against the stake as well as horseshoes that land within 6 inches of the stake.
In the first day of D1 competition, Duerr went 3-2. He started with a 28-22 loss to Mark Burns of Michigan, then defeated Mark Burns II 38-14 aided by a tournament-high 20 ringers, beat Doug Singer of Ohio 32-17 and Lang Johnston of Pennsylvania 28-22 and then fell to Smith 30-19.
On day two, things got interesting. “I was sitting in seventh place (after day one),” Duerr said. “So I knew coming into the next day I needed to be at the top of my game to get myself back into position to contend. I woke up at 3 o’clock that morning sick. The worst headache I’ve had in my whole life, I had stomach issues, threw up. I was worried if I was even going to be able to make it to the tournament that day. I got over there and my eyes and head hurt so bad I couldn’t see. Somehow by the grace of God I won all five of my games that second day. That day I was focused on me.
I texted my best friend that morning and I said, ‘I know this isn’t the NBA Finals but I need to have a Michael Jordan moment,’ because that’s how rough I was. He said, ‘you got this. Just go do your thing.’” He started strong, downing Wayne Friesmuth of Michigan 37-14. Then things got tighter. Duerr beat Thomas 26-22 in what turned out to be a big win, edged Jim McElveen of Georgia 31-30, got by Dave Quaid, another Wisconsin pitcher, 30-27, and clipped Steve Campbell of Michigan 23-22.
Suddenly, Duerr was on top of the heap at 8-2.
“On day three, that’s when I was nervous because I was sitting in a tie for first place after the second day,” Duerr said. “I was nervous and I had a lot of good people to play. My first game it was my best game of the day and I tied (23-23 with Phillip Contreras of New Mexico). But I’m starting to keep an eye on what’s happening because a tie doesn’t really help you by any means. You want to win. I’m starting to keep an eye on what’s going on around me. A couple other people lost a game and I’m feeling good. But then I lost a game, so now I’m back into third place.
The loss was a rough one, 36-11 to Larry Rhode of Michigan. It followed another close win, 25-24 over Jeff Coile of Georgia. In his fourth match of the day, Duerr got another big win, defeating Agustino Mansera of California 28-27 on his last shot.
“The two people that were ahead of me, one guy was playing on the right side of me and one guy was on the left side of me and I started watching their games,” Duerr said. “I was kicking butt in my game up through the first 24 horseshoes, but then I started watching what was going on around me and I got out of rhythm. The guy took the lead with the final two shoes of that game and I had to cover his ringers to win. And, then the guys next to me each lost so I was back into first place going into my last game.”
Duerr buried Zachary Spanke of Michigan 37-19 in his final game to secure the title and said much of the credit goes to his pals from Wisconsin.
“Probably about 30-40 Wisconsin people were watching me on that last day,” he said. “There were bleachers on each side of the pits. My dad (Jim) was sitting with a group of Wisconsin people. I didn’t play very well and this one person grabbed me and said,’ you need to slow down, you need to do your thing, don’t worry about anybody else. Just go out and relax and have fun.’ I listened to her and just tried to take my time in those last two games.”
Duerr said concentration, footwork and follow through are, to him, the three biggest elements to horseshoe pitching success. The concentration part certainly was important in this competition.
“Things happened that just don’t happen in this sport,” Duerr said. “At the world tournament, you play on clay. There’s no sand, so your shoes stick where they land. In one game, somehow I managed to slide a shoe. A guy had two leaners up against the stake. My first shoe hit on top and flew out of the pit, so what am I going to do here? My second shoe, I had to go in low and hard and actually slid it 3 inches on clay to get around the stake to win the game.
“It was almost impossible to happen, but it happened,” Jim Duerr said. “It was just like someone was there watching out for him.”
Next year’s world championships are set to be out in Washington.
“This was mission accomplished,” Duerr said. I wasn’t sure about going back but after I won, I have to now. I have to defend it and hopefully get better yet.”
Duerr credits Ralph Marthaler of Medford for getting him into state-sanctioned horseshoe pitching. Marthaler made his 20th straight trip to the world competition and placed fifth in the Elder F1 division with a 9.5-5.5 record. He had 22 ringers in one of his wins and his tournament high was 39 points in a 39-10 win over Raymond Callahan of North Carolina. Jed Manion of Connecticut was the division champion with a 14-2 record. He beat Bob Dale twice, 22-21 in the final roundrobin game and 30-27 in a tiebreaker to win the division.
Marvin Mengel of Lublin went 12-3 to take second in the Men’s G2 division just behind 12.5-2.5 Jan Warwick of Iowa. Mengel actually beat Warwick 31-17 in their head-to-head match, tying his tournament high with 14 ringers. Mengel also had 14 ringers in a 43-15 win over Gary Petersen of Connecticut.
Sarah Chaffee, a 16-year-old from Chippewa Falls won her second straight overall women’s world championship during this year’s tournament.
For more information on horseshoe pitching in Wisconsin, you can visit the Wisconsin Horseshoe Pitcher Association website at whpahorseshoes.com as well as the Horseshoes Around Wisconsin page on Facebook.
Dustin Duerr focuses on this throw during world competition in Lansing, Mich. last month.SUBMITTED PHOTO
