Millenbaugh named Showman of Showmen of Crawford County Fair

Friday evening at the Crawford County Fair, ten exhibitors gathered in the arena to compete for the prestigious title of 2017 Showman of Showmen.

By jeffr July 23, 2017 1:08 am

Crawford County NowMaria Winemiller 2017 Crawford County Fair Showman of Showmen, Lori Millenbaugh.

By Jordan Studer

Friday evening at the Crawford County Fair, ten exhibitors gathered in the arena to compete for the prestigious title of 2017 Showman of Showmen. In order to qualify for the Showman of Showmen Contest, exhibitors must have won Senior Showmanship with one of their animals.

The ten individuals competing all represented a different species of animal, the animal they won Senior Showmanship with earlier in the week.

The goal of the evening was to discover who was best at showing a multitude of different kinds of animals. There were ten categories of animals present at the contest, but the exhibitors only had to handle nine of them. Whichever animal each exhibitor was representing, they did not have to show the species that day.

Animal species shown at the contest were horses, dairy cows, goats, dairy beef cows, lambs, alpacas, beef cows, swine, rabbits, and poultry. Each different species had a designated judge who would ask the showmen to all walk around in the arena with the animals, as well as test their knowledge on the animal.

The judges would then score each showman, and whoever had the best score would be named Showman of Showmen. As the evening progressed, talents continued to shine and the competition remained tight until the end. Just before scores were announced, for the first time ever a tiebreaker had to take place for the winning title of Showman of Showmen.Battling it out for the win were showmen Lori Millenbaugh and Ethan Martin. After the final tiebreaker scores were tallied, it was revealed that Millenbaugh had won the title of Showman of Showmen.

Battling it out for the win were showmen Lori Millenbaugh and Ethan Martin. After the final tiebreaker scores were tallied, it was revealed that Millenbaugh had won the title of Showman of Showmen.

Millenbaugh described that winning Showman of Showmen has been a goal of hers for a very long time, as both of her older sisters had won the title during their time showing. When asking Millenbaugh what she felt in that moment, she was excited yet a little surprised.

“It feels pretty good honestly. I thought I wasn’t going to do to good on the rabbit and the poultry. Because that’s why I did so bad last year was because I bombed those two,” Millenbaugh replied, “it’s pretty cool that I won it, I mean all I’ve ever shown is hogs, sheep, and cattle.”

Millenbaugh explained that last year she got third place overall in Showman of Showmen, which was not where she had wanted to end up. She then took that as a motivation and this year used all of her resources to prepare better for the rabbit and poultry category.

“I got more help. I had like two people help me on the rabbits and three or four people help me on the poultry. And I got on YouTube and looked up how to show a rabbit,” Millenbaugh said.

Despite the nervous feeling about the rabbit and poultry, she placed higher than she had expected in those categories. She did explain though that out of all of the animals she had shown that night, the dairy cow was giving her a bit of trouble and wanted to throw her around a bit. She admitted how since she is so used to showing beef steers, she wanted to turn around to show the dairy cow like a steer but knew she had to walk backward to properly show the dairy cow.

Even though she felt as though she was struggling, the Dairy judge must have thought otherwise. Millenbaugh took first place in the dairy category and was very happy about it.

Not only did Millenbaugh win the title of 2017 Showman of Showmen, but she also took home Overall Reserve Jackpot Swine, Market Lamb Senior Showmanship, and Overall Grand Champion Market Steer. When asking Millenbaugh for an overview of the week from her perspective, she was very happy.

“It’s been amazing! It’s probably been the best fair week I’ve ever had,” Millenbaugh said.

Taking Reserve Showman of Showmen was three-year-member of North Auburn Hustlers 4-H Club, Ethan Martin. This year marked Martin’s first year in Showman of Showmen and although he was disappointed not to win, he felt honored to have been in a tie for first place before the tiebreaker.

Martin explained his preparation for the show, “I just worked with friends that show other projects and they’ve helped me out, they’ve been a big help, and I just tried my best.”

Martin had originally anticipated horses to give him trouble, so he was pleasantly surprised when he got second in that category.