Grapplers stay grease pole champs

Alex Graff, a Medina native who now lives in Rochester, may be covered in grease, but he is having a great time during the grease pole championships on Saturday to cap off the Orleans County 4-H Fair. Steven Papponetti is trying to climb of Graff’s shoulders. Graff and Papponetti are members of the Rough N Ready team. They weren’t able to reach the top of the pole on Saturday. They won on Wednesday to advance to the finals.

The Grease Grapplers once again won the grease pole championship, ascending the slippery telephone pole in 23.3 seconds. Andy Follman is on the bottom in this picture with Jesse Follman on his shoulders. Tyler Palmer, in black shirt, makes a move to climb to the top. Those three are all from Lyndonville. Five Guys and a Pole, a team new to the competition, came in second by climbing the pole in 30 seconds.

The Grease Partiers are close to climbing the slathered pole. Matthew Parker is on the bottom with Patrick Sewar on top. Tyler Thomas, middle, gets ready to climb on Sewar’s back. The three are all from Medina.

Tyler Thomas of Medina is thrilled to reach the top of the grease pole for the Grease Partiers.

The team called Merica works together to climb the grease pole. Nick Schroeder is in the yellow shirt and Dustin Wells is wearing the white shirt with red pants. They’re both from Medina.

Barry Flansburg has served as emcee of the grease pole climb each night for many fairs. A big crowd watched the finals on Saturday. State Assemblyman Steve Hawley, R-Batavia, and State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, both attended the event and addressed the crowd.