• Article Photo. A young boy was among many children lining 4th street to watch waterball Friday night in Vinton.
    A young boy was among many children lining 4th street to watch waterball Friday night in Vinton.

A Vinton Fire Department team earned the 2nd place trophy and a team from the Garrison FD won the 4th place trophy in the first-ever night-time waterball fights in Vinton.

More than 50 men's teams and 10 women's teams from area fire departments as well as those from other parts of Iowa competed.

Some highlights of the evening included the first attempt at waterball for Jessica Fairbanks, the wife of VFD's Damien Fairbanks. She didn't win but looks forward to competing again.

Another first-timer was Troy Clark of Fort Worth, Texas. Visiting some friends in Rowley who came to compete, Clark, a firemen, said he had never seen waterball fights before but signed up for a couple of teams and was the nozzle man on one squad.

Team winners include: Riverdale 2, first place; Vinton 1, 2nd Place; Radcliffe, third place; and Garrison 4, fourth place
Women's team winners were Nashua 1, first; Hills 1, 2nd Place; Center Point 1, third-place; Rowley 4th Place.
Heather Sinwell again led the Nashua team; she has competed often at Vinton and other contests.
 
On the winning Vinton 2 team were Dennis Bramow, Jeremy Eikhoff, Gary McKenna and Damien Fairbanks. The winning Garrison team included Rick Rommann, Josh Erickson, Cory Chapman, and Nick Decker.
 
Vinton Fire Chief Gary McKenna said the night-time event was a success, and the department is likely to plan more of its future events for evenings instead of afternoons.

See more photos HERE.