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The winners and their launcher.

by: James Parrish - Sep. 12, 2022

EPI-cally Allergic, a team made up of Jon Keck, Ricki Reason and Justin Cosler of North Platte, won the inaugural National Avocado Launching Championship on Saturday at the Wild West Arena.

Jon Keck, who built the spring-loaded device that won the competition, said there was no way he would’ve believed he would win out of what ended up being 30 teams when he decided to enter the competition, but it goes to show the value of trying.

“It’s amazing,” he said with a laugh when asked about being the national champion. “I didn’t think we’d do it but I put a lot of effort into it.”

The name of the team, EPI-cally Allergic, came from the fact that Keck himself is allergic to avocadoes. But just because he can’t eat them didn’t mean he couldn’t build an apparatus to launch them.

The idea of designing the launcher sparked Keck’s creativity after his friends, Reason and Cosler, decided to join in with him.

“I made a design and came up with a blueprint,” Keck said. “We were going to make a balloon launcher but I decided, ‘Hey, let’s make something cool.’ So I went that route.”

EPI-cally Allergic’s launcher had a five-foot-long arm with a basket at the end. Keck spent a month building it in his spare time.

“It’s made of angled steel and it’s reinforced everywhere,” he said. “We used trampoline springs to power it. You push back on the arm and let it go. With six springs, you can get up to 200 foot.”

Keck tested the device throughout the week at his parent’s farm outside of town and on Friday at the warm-up at the Wild West Arena.

“I tested it 3-4 times throughout the week,” he said. “We got it dialed in the best we could. We made sure everything held together and was reinforced.”

Nevertheless, in the first round of the tournament, it broke. But that didn’t keep them from moving on and they were able to get it fixed in between rounds.

For the championship, they defeated the Holiday Inn Express team from Chadron.

The competition was scored on targets marked on upside down horse troughs, with values ranging from 50-300. Epi-cally Allergic hit the 100-point mark twice.

But it wasn’t just the trophy and the $5,000 prize that made the National Avocado Launching Championship a special experience for Keck. It was the fun he had conceiving, building and testing it with his friends, Reason and Cosler, that makes him eager to defend the title next year.

“It was amazing. I’ll definitely do it again next year,” Keck said “I’ll build another one that’s even stronger and we’re going to have it welded.”

EPI-cally Allergic won the $5,000 top prize. The Holiday Inn Express Chadron was runner up, winning $4,000. Third place went to Benny and the Pits of North Platte, $2,400. Fourth place went to Spicy Tuna “Athletics” of Lincoln, who took home $1,200.

Top photo: EPI-cally Allergic, from left: Jon Keck, Justin Cosler and Ricki Reason, with their launcher and trophy. Tap on image to enlarge.

Lisa Burke, the executive director of the North Platte-Lincoln County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the idea of the National Avocado Launching Championship came from a discussion of how to bring people to the area.

An avocado launching tournament is certainly a novel concept. All things are just an idea, at first.

“Our marketing team got together and did some brainstorming on some unique things we could do. This was one of the things they came up with that could grow to become a huge event,” Burke said.

All 30 teams came from inside the state with half of them from North Platte, Burke said. There were teams from Omaha and Lincoln, as well as Chadron, Sidney and Cody.

The competition was originally scheduled in May but it was postponed to September to ensure a higher chance of success.

“The timing wasn’t quite right (in May),” Burke said. “We made a better decision by postponing. Having 30 teams for the first event was great.”

Burke said there will be a second National Avocado Launching Championship in 2023 but wasn’t sure whether it would still be in September.

The event was scheduled in conjunction with the Western Nebraska Craft Beer Festival, which was held on Saturday after the competition.

“I guess the same person who would enjoy launching avocados would also enjoy drinking craft beer,” Burke said. “It’s good to have fun events matched up with each other.”

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