sanders: it took a lot of chopping and sawing to build up the middle section of this country. this time around, it's back to the heartland -- tinley park, illinois, in chicagoland. the best lumberjack sports competitors in the united states. the u.s. championships of the stihl timbersports series. [ "dogs of war" by blues saraceno plays ] ? mm, mm, mm ? ? mm, mm, mm, mm ? ? mm, mm, mm ? ? mm, mm, mm, mm ? ? see the fields burnin' ? ? see the fields burnin' ? ? 'cause hell is comin' through ? ? i can't stop the dogs of war ? ? i can't stop the dogs of war ? ? i can't stop the dogs of war ? ? mm, mm, mm ? ? mm, mm, mm, mm ? ? mm ? ? mm, mm ? [ cheers and applause ] sanders: it's the biggest stage for the best choppers and sawyers in the country. the stihl timbersports series presented by ram. and here we are at the u.s. championships, 2016, tinley park, illinois, in the chicago southland area. and we begin the final two legs of this journey. 20 athletes are qualified for the semifinal. we now split them into 2 pools of 10 each. in this round, you have one objective -- finish in the top four. that's the way you make it to the finals. s, kevin, in pool a. and leading the way is the man everyone has their eyes on, and that's matt cogar. going for a fourpeat, the first time ever for an american. holtz: well, and here's what makes matt cogar so consistent. it's his emotional neutrality. he approaches everything with an even keel, so along with matt cogar in pool a is another one of my favorite picks -- walt page. he is one of the few guys in this field, and he just has that same sort of emotional, flat tone tride. all right, can anyone catch matt cogar? a lot of qualified guys chasing him today on the first semifinal program in the stihl timbersports series u.s. championships, presented by ram. here's how the scoring breaks down. 10 lumberjack athletes competing in 6 different disciplines. the top time from each discipline is awarded 10 points. last place is awarded 1 point, and zero points for a dq. the top four in points, total points, we're ready to go with maybe the toughest event of all the disciplines, the springboard chop. walt: in the springboard chop in the stihl series, we use aspen or poplar trees. on go, everyone starts, and they'll put a pocket in down at about 3 1/2 feet off the ground. normally four to six hits is a good pocket, and you put a board into it, get up on that board, put another pocket in at about 6 feet off the ground. another four or six hits, get on that, t to sever the block on top is the winner. well, let's get you up to speed on how we got our time to beat in our first heat of the springboard. it would feature four veterans -- richard jordan, mike forester, daryl weakland, and mike slingerland. forester is putting on a clinic. and it would be mike forester taking the top time in just under 1:13. [ cheering ] on pole number one, matt slingerland of north carolina -- of the springboard chop. pole number two, matthew bolton, canandaigua, new york, has competed in the past in timbersports. and the first man ever, if he can pull it off, win this time around. stihl timbersports u.s. championship presented by ram. it'd be the first time an american has done a fourpeat in this event. our defending champion, matt cogar. yeah, the heat of matt's here. you know, i'm a little bit biased on this one. i am watching matt bolton. he currently lives in and spent a lot of time one town away from me in new york state, and it's great to see him come back to this sport. he came through the college ranks. obviously, all eyes on matt cogar, our current reigning champion, and of course, young matt slingerland. look at the best time that his dad laid on that first heat. time to beat's 1:12.77, laid down by mike forester in heat number one. yeah, look at this. bolton up. pole number two, just ahead of matt cogar. to clean out some chips. cogar, though, has got it reeled in now. oh, trouble for bolton off that second board. wow, down off the second board. was looking good, was almost blow-for-blow with cogar up until that point. but now, matt cogar's absolutely going to town on that block. trouble for slingerland, too. for matt cogar, and this will not be long before that block comes off, and there we go. super competitive time, 54:13 unofficially. watch how deep matt cogar wades into the front side of this block. look at the back, though. one down, one up, one more to clear that last chip, and then he cleans it off. matthew bolton's gonna come down with 1:45.99. matt slingerland with 1:38.86, and matt cogar with the best time recorded this year. 53.65. you know, just get the heart pumping, the blood pumping, too. 54, that could be improved on a lot. you know, i was fumbling around with the chips in the back of the pockets and stuff. chips weren't really moving out of the way, so i had to take some time to put those away. but, yeah, there will be time to make a 40-second cut later. [ cheers and applause ] sort of an cast coast, west coast setup in our final heat. the springboard chop. here's a man who was definitely a part of the equation last year in the chase for the championship, 2015. nathan waterfield of new york. rob waibel, the perennial from the west coast. probably in his third decade of competition, stihl timbersports. walt page of california, out of the college program at cal poly san luis obispo. the time to beat is 53.66. you know, i'm looking for him to repeat that again here today. walt has this sort of emotional numbness, much like guys like matt cogar. i think you've heard of him, working towards it, anyways. and walt has that ability to kind of shut the emotion out of it, put in a clean cut. but trouble on that first board. you saw, tommy, his left toe is nearly jammed in the pocket with the board. he does not have confidence in that board. he's losing leverage. that's fine on this first board set, but when he gets to this second board, he's gotta be able to get all the way out to that little wood cleat at the end of the springboard. look at the other two competitors in this heat, though. ime for a few little sort of miscalculations at the start, though, but he's gonna really have to hustle, and he's not gonna do it. he is not gonna beat the time already laid down by matt cogar. you can see, he's worked himself right down to a v as he gets into the back of this block. but both these -- oh, waibel with a glancing blow. [ chuckling ] wow! nathan waterfield might have nailed it right at the very end there. i am just astonished that walt page was able to reel in nathan waterfield this much after a very weak first board. wet's watch this replay here to see if we can pick a winner. look at that. waterfield. he's gonna be captain split second now after new york city last year in the standing block chop. and now he just bested walt page. waterfield: that's good. second place, that's good. it's where i want to be, but my focus is one event at a time, competing against myself. that's -- most of the time, i beat that cut all day long. so that's a loss for me. final heat may have been the top seeds, and they were able to hold their own except for the top spot. matt cogar hangs onto that for his win, picking up where he left off at the end of 2015. but right after that, nathan waterfield, walt page, and rob waibel in that order for the top four spots. and of course, the top four is where you want to wind up ke forester is the first man out. one discipline down, five events to go. coming up next, we put away the axes and crank up the chainsaws. motorsports fans, get ready. two men, two machines square off in the stock saw. and later, what kind of gift did you give your spouse when you got married? we'll meet an athlete who used his skills and knowledge to give his wife a wedding present for the ages. the stihl timbersports series u.s. championship from tinley park, illinois, is under way. ram... ...duluth trading... sanders: how great it is to be in chicagoland this time around for the stihl timbersports series. st for a very important history lesson. well, this historical building right here is located 202 east chicago avenue in chicago, illinois. engine 98 was built in 1902. it has a lot of rich history. everything in here is original. all the original woodwork is in here, the original brass pole is in here. and pretty much, everything in here is originally still in place, still intact. we've been taking care of it since 1904. just south of downtown chicago in tinley park at the tinley park convention center. it's the stihl timbersports series u.s. championship. today, 10 lumberjacks vying for one of the coveted championship spots. only the top four will move on, and right now, defending champ matt cogar sits atop the leaderboard this is the stock car racing of timbersports. two equally matched stihl ms661 chainsaws are timed, tacked, and tuned to be within a hundreds of a thousandths of a second of each other in the wood. two matched 20-inch guide bars and two finely ground chains are on these saws, so the only variable between the bunks is the operator. just around the ram logo right now. in this contest, 16 inches of wood will be severed with one down cut, one up cut. competitors trying to move slow and smooth, keeping the saw in the wood and feeding the wood as fast as possible. let's get you up to speed on how we got our time to beat. in our first heat, it would be matt bolton taking on nathan waterfield, and it would be waterfield besting bolton, setting the time to beat at 11.94. y, that's mid-pack, but anytime you're headed towards the line, you start to panic, and you're steering the saw, steering the saw, turning it. the saw can only cut so fast when you're steering it away from that line. next heat coming up in the stock saw, it's gonna be matt slingerland going up against daryl weakland. holtz: all the competitors here today wearing their ppe, having their equipment in place. ear, eye, and leg protection. and of course, they have to have a safe start with the saw, as well. you see daryl weakland at the saw, pinned down to the ground. matt slingerland holding the saw between his legs. three points of contact is the safety rule. [ starter's pistol firing ] both these guys clean to the wood. listen to the saws. listen how consistent they are through the block. [ chainsaws buzzing ] slingerland's strong. yeah, you can hear that little bog down, pull down. i think that was daryl weakland's saw. i'm guessing it was daryl weakland's saw as he came up short in that heat. man: all right, gentlemen, timers ready. contestants ready. well, page comes into this second discipline, the stock saw, in third place in ram overall points. that's him on stand number one. stand number two, of course, the number-one man in points, matt cogar. tommy, this was always a discipline that i loved when it went well, and i was always relieved when it was over because so much happens in such a short window of time, and the tiniest mistake on your part is irreparable. both of these guys were to the wood exceptionally fast. i can't believe the pressure that walt was applying on the top. look at these guys on the top. oh, i think matt may have got it. matt may have nipped him right at the end. watch both these guys coming down through the block. matt cogar on your right, walt page on the left. both with exceptionally quick changes. walt just seems violent with his changes. a little bit of a wobble there from walt page. there he is, matt cogar, just taking him at the very end there, 11.66. second in overall points right there. walt page, an 11.868. good, tight racing here at tinley park, illinois. with one more heat left to go in the stock saw, who will it be? mike slingerland, position one. rob waibel, position number two. man: hands on the wood. man #2: hands on the wood. get set. stol firing ] see a preference difference here. mike slingerland standing with the block of wood to his left. rob waibel -- oh, wow. oh! rob waibel stopping the chain on stand number two. aggressive with that switch. [ cheers and applause ] holy cow. i don't think i've seen that in a long time. an epic amount of force from rob waibel, and he knows it. you can see how that worked out for rob waibel. see a little foot shift there from rob. . just something as simple as that. lookit, he came way down out of that block, shoved it back up in, recovered, didn't stall, and then stalls the saw. well, mike slingerland's 11.78, good enough for third place overall. his son, mike slingerland, the man on top when it's all said and done. 11.34. matt cogar picks up third-place points, and richard jordan in fourth. taking a look at our ram overall points. lace. remember, only the top four move on to the championship round. i'm a second-generation competitor. my father was a world champion back in the '80s. on father's day a few months ago, i met with my dad right after my competition that matt won the all-around for. and he was talking about it, and he was so proud that i did so much more in the sport than he did, ng one of the top competitors as your teacher, sanders: welcome back. and here's kind of a head scratcher. we referred to this earlier. what do you really give your intended for a wedding gift? could be a hard one to figure out. rras, he had the perfect gift in mind for his wife-to-be, caitlin, one that utilized his lumberjack skills. walt: we're headed up to the place where caitlin and i used to live, where the barn is we got married in. caitlin wanted to -- she mentioned something to me about having a barn wedding. and i needed a training area, too, so it worked out well for me. chopping wood and rebuilding a barn. caitlin: it was pretty much falling apart, so it was quite the task for him to do, but he did it from the ground up. milled the boards himself for the barn. i saved a lot of the roofing tin, reused a lot of it. there's a little section of new steel over here. took about four months to build this structure. caitlin: and it was right before the stihl series, the first time that he was in it. he had to work, train, and build the barn before our wedding, so he was very busy during that time. walt: i rode to the stihl series with david moses and brandon sergei. we drove there, and then i had to -- i couldn't drive back with them. i had to fly home 'cause i was getting married four days, i think, after the stihl series got done with. and then we got married. he's just -- he'll do anything for anyone, and the barn was just something that i said i wanted for the wedding, and he just hopped right up, and him and his brother redid it, along with the help of some family and friends. but it meant the world to me to be able to have a wedding in a barn that he built. it just made it really special. the stihl timbersports series u.s. championships under way just south of chicago at the tinley park convention center. today, 10 lumberjacks are battling for a spot in the championship. only the top four will move on to the next round. right now, the father/son duo of matt and mike slingerland battling on the bubble. the defending champ, matt cogar, is cruising towards the next round as we head into our third discipline of the day, the standing block chop. let's get you up to speed, see how we got our time to beat in the first heat of the standing block.