The Wisconsin Auctioneers Association held their annual WI State Champion Auctioneer Contest at the WI State Fair and David Allen of Cross Plains, WI received the wining scores from the 5 judges.
The journey began in January with a preliminary auctioneer contest held in conjunction with the annual Wisconsin Auctioneers Association convention. At that time contestants were in the preliminaries and the five judges narrowed it to 10 semi-finalists for the final competition at the WI State Fair.
The WI Champion Auctioneer final competition was held on the Main Stage in the Coliseum of the WI State Fair Park. The nine (one semi-finalist could not attend) competitors in the initial round sold 3 items and then determined by the judges scores the field was narrowed to 6 finalists. The six finalists then had to answer two industry related questions and sell an additional 3 items for the final round. This competition was also a fund raiser for the 4-H Foundation with the competitors selling various items donated for the 4-H Foundation and the WI State Fair Park Foundation.
The nine finalists were Seth Adams, Prairie du Chien; David Allen, Cross Plains; Jenny Markham-Gehl, Genesee; Ray Henry, Foley, MN; Jack Hines, Ellsworth; Kathy Packard, Antigo; Randy Stockwell, Dorchester; Sterling Strathe, Eagle River; and Kendall Thiel, Chilton.
With the first round of auction lots being sold the judges made the 9 semi-finalists to 6 and they were David Allen, Ray Henry, Randy Stockwell, Jack Hines, Kathy Packard and Kendall Theil. When the final “calling” was done and the scores were tallied the Champion was David Allen, with Ray Henry being the 1st runner –up and 2nd runner-up was Randy Stockwell.
Thank you to all the past WI State Champions, Jim Gavin, Steve Strey, Dave Koning, Carol Wagenson, Bryan Mergen, Tim Miller, Tim Slack, Scott Werlein and Wayne Yoder that attended, and helped in various capacities; and to the Slack “Clerking” ladies, Linda and Kathy for clerking the auction, and to Rodney Freymiller, Allen Martin and Harold and Marilyn Betthauser and our emcees of the day, Tim and Heidi Miller.
Thank you to all of you who bid at the auction; our WAA Championship Auction is open to the public and we invite you to attend at the next WI State Fair in 2018 held in the second week of the WI State Fair on Tuesday afternoon.