Kilbourne resident Derek Dusthimer has become quite accustomed to the winning feeling throughout his career as a competitive lumberjack, and he recently experienced that feeling once more as he added to his growing list of accomplishments.

On Oct. 6, Dusthimer claimed his third all-around state lumberjack championship at the Paul Bunyan Show held at the Guernsey County Fairgrounds. To win the state championship, a lumberjack must show well across five events —axe throwing, two-man crosscut, jack and jill crosscut, underhand chop, and hot saw racing.

Alongside his wife, Angie, Dusthimer earned top points for winning the jack and jill crosscut sawing event after setting a state record with a time of 2.64 seconds. He called the moment “very special” considering his wife knew nothing of the sport when they first met.

“I’ve crosscut with my mom before, and a few other people, but to win with your wife — we’ve won it several times now — never gets old,” Dusthimer said.

He came up just shy of winning the two-man crosscut sawing event with partner Grant Foreman, a Marysville resident and STIHL Timbersports Series competitor, losing by less than a 10th of a second. As favorites in the event, and having already lost his most skilled event in the axe throw, Dusthimer was counting on those first-place points to help propel him to the all-around championship.

Instead, he had to pull off what he called a “shocking” upset in the underhand chopping event, something he was not expecting before the event. “Basically, 10 seconds before the event started, I would have told you the other three (competitors) would have been done and waiting on me to finish, and the other competitors would have agreed,” Dusthimer said.

With a fourth-place finish in the hot sawing class, Dusthimer had gained enough points to secure the state championship.

“I knew there was a path to winning the all-around, but that was not part of it,” Dusthimer said of winning the underhand chopping event. “I was stunned. There were several people videoing me, and they said they were going to make a meme of my face as I stepped off the block and the other three (competitors) were still going.”

The championship built upon an impressive resume that already includes four world championships — underhand chopping in 2005 and axe-throwing in 2007, 2017-18 — and 25 state championships in individual events throughout a more than 30-year career in a sport that took hold of him at an early age.

Dusthimer’s family managed a tree farm for an out-of-state landowner, exposing him to the forestry industry as a child. Having attended the Paul Bunyan Show annually, including the state lumberjack competition to watch his father compete, Dusthimer was destined to get involved in the sport.

While his father only started competing a few years before the launch of Dusthimer’s career, watching him factored heavily in his decision to pursue the sport. In 1993, at just 16 years old, Dusthimer entered his first lumberjack competition at the Geauga County Maple Festival in Chardon.

Success wasn’t immediate for Dusthimer, a reality most newcomers face in the sport, but he eventually claimed his first all-around state championship in 2011.

“Back then, there were probably 40-45 people in each event, so it was extremely competitive,” Dusthimer said of his early days of competition. “When you get in, basically everybody starts with axe throwing because it’s the cheapest event to enter. And then as you get better and make more money, you can buy a crosscut saw, buy a chopping axe, and sort of slowly work your way up. It takes a little bit of time before you have all the knowledge and top-of-the-line equipment to compete at that level.”

Although it may have taken some time, the achievement served as confirmation that Dusthimer was capable of competing at such a level while also validating all the work he’d put into his craft. More than anything, the first all-around championship underscored how difficult it can be for everything to fall into place on a given day to take home the top prize.

“I had a lot of close calls, but to get all five events on that one day of the year is really difficult. It’s still difficult,” he said. “When you’re dealing with high-level racing chainsaws and stuff like that, there are always mechanical issues, and you have one shot every year on that one day. We do probably 10-15 competitions each year, but the state championship is one day of the year. You either have it that day or you don’t, or somebody else may have an unbelievable day and you did the best you could and got second.”

Dusthimer, now 47 years old, said his training regimen includes strength and conditioning work as well as utilizing both his home training center as well as Foreman’s personal training center to work on techniques. Overall, he estimates he trains for upwards of 10 months of the year.

“The older you get, the longer you let your body rest after the season and then gear it back up for the next year,” he said.

Asked what keeps him dialed into the sport after more than three decades, Dusthimer said it’s the love for competition and the pursuit of improvement that never fades. “It’s kind of like golf in that there’s always something when you’re coming home that you could have done better no matter how well you did,” he said.

With three already under his belt, Dusthimer said he would like to own the record for most axe-throwing world championships, whatever that number may be. “I know it’s more than I have now, and that takes the least amount of physical training, so that’s hopefully an event I can be proficient at the longest,” he said.

That he now gets to travel and enjoy the competition with his family further serves to keep him invigorated. “It’s still full speed ahead,” he said.

As for whether or not he envisions his kids, now 9 and 5 years old, eventually getting involved in the sport and continuing the tradition, Dusthimer said it’s possible although not being pressed on them.

“They go along with it and travel with us and enjoy the different places we go,” he said. “(Lumberjacking) will probably be a sport of last resort. We’ll focus on the sports that make the big bucks first, and this will always be there if that doesn’t work out.”

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on Twitter @DillonDavis56.