In the sheaf toss event at the Highland Games, participants use a pitchfork to launch burlap sacks over a bar of progressing height. The apparatus used is much like the structure at the pole vault, with a bar raised after each round of successful throws.

Aslynn Halvorson, of Irmo, jokes about the origination of the sheaf toss. “Two farmers [were] like hey, watch this. See what happens! And that seems completely logical for half the events we do,” she says about the Highland Games, described by the New York Times as a “track meet, meets county fair.”

The former member of the University of Tennessee track and field team is dominating the competition at Saturday’s Games at the Cayce Speedway. Her favorite event in college was the discus and here, it’s the one where you spin and throw a rectangular metal weight attached to a chain and hoop.

An exercise science professor at Newberry College, she is so good at this, that participants in nearby events have to pause when it’s her turn — to avoid getting hit with a deadly projectile.

For Kevin Miller, who sports a chemically enhanced bright red beard, his attraction to the Highland Games is simple. “I love to throw stuff,” he says. Twenty years ago Miller saw a flyer for the Games at a BBQ joint in Aiken. That was 350 events ago and if there’s one within a 12 hour drive, he says he’ll be there.

The Tartan Festival and Highland Games returned to Cayce for the first time on Saturday after two years with pandemic cancellations.

All photos by and copyright Sean Rayford 2022

2022 Tartan Day South Highland Games results:

Lightweight: Jason Flanagan

Women’s masters: Cheryl Wolfinger

Women’s open: Aslynn Halvorson

Men’s masters: Paul Evans

Men’s B: Bryce McCraw

Male athlete of the day: Carter Irvin

Female Athlete of the Day: Callie Snead

About the author: Sean Rayford is a South Carolina photographer specializing in photojournalism and commercial photography, living in the state capital since 1997. Rayford likes running, kayaking, bicycling, hiking and traveling in his micro camper van.

If it is heavy, we toss it!