{"id":78524,"date":"2016-08-01T07:43:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T12:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=78524"},"modified":"2016-08-01T07:43:20","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T12:43:20","slug":"judges-named-for-2016-van-wert-rib-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2016\/08\/01\/judges-named-for-2016-van-wert-rib-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges named for 2016 Van Wert Rib Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

Judges for this year\u2019s 10th annual Van Wert Rib Fest have been announced. These eight judges will sample ribs from all vendors participating in this year\u2019s event and will select the first-, second- and third- place trophies for best ribs and the first-, second- and third-place trophies for the best sauce among the seven vendors. Judges include:<\/p>\n

\"Allie<\/a>
Allie Clifton Kaslow reporting on the sidelines at a Cleveland Cavaliers game.<\/strong> (photo submitted)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Allie (Clifton) Kalsow is the Fox Sports Ohio sideline reporter for the Cleveland Cavaliers. She joined Fox Sports Ohio in 2012 as the Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 sideline reporter. She also has over 10 years\u2019 experience playing competitive basketball and six years\u2019 experience as a sideline reporter and sports reporter. Born and raised in Van Wert, Kalsow was the captain of her high school\u2019s first and only Western Buckeye League basketball champion team in 2006. She continued her basketball success at The University of Toledo, where she was a four-year letter winner and three-time co-captain, while leading her team to the Mid-American Conference (MAC) West Division title in 2010.<\/p>\n

With a bachelor\u2019s degree in sports analysis and communication and a master\u2019s degree in communications, Kalsow has served as sideline reporter for the Toledo Mud Hens of minor league baseball\u2019s AAA International League, a sports feature reporter for 13 ABC Action News in<\/p>\n

Toledo, and color analyst and sideline reporter for high school and collegiate basketball, volleyball, and track and field on Buckeye Cable Sports Net in Toledo.<\/p>\n

This past season she was a part of history alongside her colleagues as the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA Championship — delivering the city of Cleveland its first major sports title in over 50 years. She says it\u2019s an experience she will never forget.<\/p>\n

Chris Darby, a multimedia journalist at NewsChannel 15, he joined the WANE-TV team in August 2015. Darby was born and raised in the heart of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed his TV news skills at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. Darby was lucky enough to get a job in the news business in his hometown after graduating college. He spent four years producing newscasts before becoming a reporter at NewsChannel 15.<\/p>\n

While small in stature, Chris boasts a big appetite and looks forward to returning to the Van Wert Rib Fest judging table.<\/p>\n

Andy Lynch has been bringing the area sports news and highlights on TV44 since 2005. Three years ago he also became the area representative for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.<\/p>\n

Lynch said he loves the way he can use his love of sports to help point people to God through positive coverage and faith stories.<\/p>\n

Before coming to Lima, Lynch was sports director at KTVF-TV in Fairbanks, Alaska, for four years and then served as sports information director of Athletes in Action in Xenia.<\/p>\n

But he missed television and the birth of the Sports Report was the perfect avenue to marry his love of God and sportscasting. He and his wife, Leah, have two elementary-age children: Nathan and Anna.<\/p>\n

Brent Harring joined the TinCaps staff in October 2007 and loves living, working, and playing in downtown Fort Wayne. Harring is the assistant director of group sales, responsible for crunching numbers and selling tickets to several counties south and east of Fort Wayne. Outside of those duties, he will help out all over Parkview Field during games, including Kids’ Zone, batting cages, picnic areas, and promotions. Brent is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a 2007 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where he was a sport management major.<\/p>\n

Prior to joining the TinCaps, Harring completed two internships in baseball, spending the summer of 2006 with the La Crosse Loggers of the collegiate Northwoods League and 2007 with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds of the Pacific Coast League.<\/p>\n

Tom Franklin is from St. Louis, Missouri, and lived for a while in Memphis, Tennessee, so he knows good barbecue when he sees it! He anchors the news every weekday afternoon on WOWO, and he never shies away from a good meal. He is the \u201cThrilla from the Grill-a!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jayson Geiser is a native of Hamler and is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School and The Ohio State University. He got his start in television as a sports producer at the ABC\/FOX station in Columbus. He has been sports director at WLIO-TV in Lima for 4\u00bd years.<\/p>\n

His journey through television sports took him to Marquette, in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of “that state up north”, and then south of the mighty Mackinac Bridge to a pair of stations in the Traverse City area. Immediately before coming home to northwest Ohio, he was the sports director at a station in Wisconsin. He has covered two Super Bowls, the Major League Baseball playoffs, No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Michigan in 2006, the NHL, college athletics of all types at all levels, racing, ski-jumping, professional wrestling … you name it, he\u2019s probably written a story about it!<\/p>\n

Most importantly, it was in Traverse City that he met a beautiful young lady named Jessi whom he later married. They have two children.<\/p>\n

Ben Rife is in his seventh year with WOSN, and has been sports director the past two years. He does his best to stay behind the scenes: directing sports coverage in one of the station\u2019s production trucks, creating graphics, as well as designing and building WOSN\u2019s Sports Report set and managing all their crews. His claim to fame is that, while in college at Xavier University, he was the school\u2019s mascot, D’Artagnan. He lives south of Delphos with wife Casey and 14-month-old son, Jackson.<\/p>\n

Angelica Robinson is a reporter at NewsChannel 15. She joined the newsroom in August 2015. Robinson is a native of Dayton and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in communication. She decided to further her education in Chicago at DePaul University, where she obtained a master\u2019s degree in journalism. During her time at DePaul, she worked for the student-run newscast, \u201cGood Day DePaul.\u201d She also worked as an intern at Chicago\u2019s public radio station, WBEZ.<\/p>\n

Her broadcasting career began in Chicago at WGN-TV, where she was a writer and fill-in producer for the station\u2019s 24-hour network CLTV.<\/p>\n

Robinson holds membership in various professional organizations including the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists and Association of Women Journalists. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., where sisterhood and service is at the forefront of the organization\u2019s mission. When she is not reporting, she enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.<\/p>\n

In addition to the judges\u2019 award, visitors to Rib Fest will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite vendor and first-, second-, and third-place People\u2019s Choice Awards will also be handed out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent\/submitted information Judges for this year\u2019s 10th annual Van Wert Rib Fest have been announced. These eight judges will sample ribs from all vendors participating in this year\u2019s event and will select the first-, second- and third- place trophies for best ribs and the first-, second- and third-place trophies for the best sauce among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 16:54:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}