Pulling out all the stops on the biggest of stages

Local girls bring home big-time hardware from National Kids Pedal Pull Tournament

Jordyn Lenertz is a bit too young to care about building her leg muscles. And at the tender age of 4, winning isn’t really her top priority, either. She just wants to have fun, and she has found a lot of it — as well as plenty of success — taking part in pedal pull competitions.

“She said she didn’t care if she didn’t get a trophy,” Jordyn’s mother, Tessa said, of her daughter’s trip to this year’s National Kids Pedal Pull Tournament. “We kept asking her, ‘What if you don’t win, if you don’t get a trophy?’ … She’s like, ‘I don’t care.’ We just wanted to go to have fun.”

Not only did Lenertz have a good time, she placed fourth at Saturday’s tournament in Mitchell, SD. She said pedal pull isn’t difficult, and this little one has made it look easy after her Box Car Days and state performances.

“You can’t stand up,” Lenertz said about one of the pedal pull rules. “It’s fun because you get to ride on a tractor.”

“The more they pedal, the weights move up, so it gets heavier,” Tessa said. “Last year (at Box Car Days) was her first year doing it. We decided to do it again this year, and she got first place in Tracy. She was so excited.”

After Box Car Days, Jordyn placed fourth at state. Pedal pullers must place in the Top 4 at a statesanctioned pedal pull to be eligible to compete at 12-andunder nationals. Trophies are awarded to kids who finish in the Top 5 in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions, in each age group.

Besides Minnesota, sanctioned states include Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

Jordyn’s fourth-place trophy is about half her size, but not as big as her smile when she shows if off.

“I got three of them!” she said. “And I got two medals.” The family headed to Mitchell last Friday after the funeral of Alita Lenertz, Jordyn’s great-granddaughter, who passed away on Sept. 19.

“Everyone kept saying Alita would’ve wanted her to do it,” Tessa said.

And Lenertz isn’t the only pedal pull royalty from the area. Also taking part at nationals last weekend was Ryanne Christopherson of Garvin, who took fifth place. In fact, she and Jordyn pedaled at the very same time in the second and final round of the event, where more weight is added.

In Ryanne’s age division, a total of 14 girls did a full pull in the first round.

“I like that we win trophies,” said Ryanne, who started pedal pulling when she was just 3. “It’s hard, but I like riding the tractor. “(The second round) was really hard, and my mom thought I might have missed. The first (round), it was like walking, it was easy.”

Ryanne’s mother, Casie, said she didn’t realize the national tournament was as big as it was, as they have only competed in smaller events, such as the one at Box Car Days.

“We’ve done the local stuff for years, and both of the kids qualified for state this year, so it’s like,’OK, let’s try the state thing because both kids qualified. Then we made it to nationals, so we thought, ‘Let’s go see what that’s like.’” Like Jordyn and her mom, the Christophersons had no expectations of what would be to come.

“It was just, let’s have fun,” Casie said. “Some of the girls looked a little bigger, so we wren’t sure how it was going to turn out. We just told her, ‘Try your hardest and don’t stop pedaling.”