Women vie for skillet toss champion at Scottdale Ice Cream Festival

For Kelsey Casoni, throwing a skillet is similar to pitching a softball.

On Sunday, she took home her fourth first-place ribbon during the Ladies Skillet Toss at the Ice Cream Summer Fun Festival in Scottdale — and she just started competing two years ago.

Casoni, 35, of Hecla, has been pitching for various softball teams since the turn of the century in Westmoreland County, as well as some teams in West Virginia and Ohio. Locally, she’s part of the Scottdale Women’s Softball League.

“I was told about this because I’ve been pitching for 25 years,” she said of the skillet toss competition. “The skillet’s heavier than a softball, but I can throw it a lot farther.”

Though she’s pitched softballs up to 65 feet away from home plate, Casoni’s winning skillet toss was a whopping 68 feet.

@triblive Kelsey Casoni, 35, of Hecla, won first place in the women’s skillet toss on Sunday at the Ice Cream Summer Fun Festival in Scottdale. She explained how a skillet toss works #skillettoss #women #farm #news #tractor #icecream #local #westmoreland #pittsburgh #pennsylvania #triblive #firstplace #fyp #skillet ♬ original sound - TribLive

As she demonstrated, the women threw the skillets underhand rather than overhand — just like in softball.

The Ladies Skillet Toss was one of many happenings this weekend at the Ice Cream Summer Fun Festival, which was hosted by the Fort Allen Antique Farm Equipment Association in conjunction with West Overton Village.

Allison Lape, corresponding secretary for the association, grew up around Scottdale. She said she’s basically been in the club since she was born.

She got the idea to host a skillet toss competition from an antique tractor magazine, which said it’s popular in the Midwest. People in the Midwest toss 10-inch skillets, though, and Sunday’s competition used 8-inch cast iron skillets instead.

Lape, 38, who now lives in Avonmore, has returned yearly for the festival since the 1990s. In her role, she helped organize the attractions with other volunteers.

The Fort Allen Antique Farm Equipment Association is a nonprofit trying to restore and preserve the past, she said, as well as educate people on the agricultural aspects of history to keep old processes alive.

“We want to show where we’ve come from,” Lape said.

At the festival, there was, of course, homemade ice cream — as promised in the name of the festival.

Jim Himler said more than 30 gallons were sold over the past two days. And all of it was made onsite.

@triblive Watch as homemade ice cream is made at the Ice Cream Summer Fun Festival in Scottdale #icecream #vanilla #chocolate #ice #dessert #news #local #churning #pittsburgh #westmoreland #pennsylvania #farm #milk #triblive #fyp ♬ original sound - TribLive

Himler, 63, of Armbrust, said it takes around 20-40 minutes to make one batch of homemade ice cream. Though the equipment used this weekend was on the newer side, in the past the association has made ice cream with original machinery from the 1900s.

Alongside watching ice cream churn, festivalgoers could check out antique farm equipment, including a variety of tractors on display, the blacksmith shop, where scrap metal can be turned into functional art and the model train museum.

Kids could participate in hands-on rope making or take a ride on the barrel train — driven by a tractor.