“Farmer Wants a Wife” Season 3 premieres Thursday night on Fox. And Wisconsin will rightfully be repped again.
Last year, we had Grace Girard, a University of Wisconsin-Madison grad who was living in Caledonia. This time, we have Madison’s Karina Sabol, an outdoors enthusiast and former All-American gymnast at another UW school, Whitewater.
Before Sabol makes her “FWAW” debut, let’s go over the basics, from her job and hobbies to how she ended up on the show:
Where is Karina Sabol from?
Sabol was born and raised in Middleton, Wisconsin. She now lives in nearby Madison.
Where did Karina Sabol go to high school? college?
Sabol is a 2019 Middleton High School graduate. She went on to study business administration at UW-Whitewater, where she graduated a year early, in 2022.
What is Karina Sabol’s job?
Sabol is a new business and operations manager for Delafield-based Gunpowder Incorporated, a public relations and advertising agency that specializes in outdoor and active lifestyle brands. She’s been with the agency since during her senior year of college.
Sabol also coaches at Madison’s Lake City Twisters Gymnastics and volunteers with the Mount Horeb High School gymnastics team.
What are Karina Sabol’s hobbies?
Sabol, who has five siblings, enjoys hanging out with her family, aka her “best friends.”
With her family having a Cross Plains horse farm, Sabol is an avid rider.
In the winter, Sabol snowshoes and hikes the Ice Age Trail with her parents’ dogs (she considers herself their “fun aunt”). When summer rolls around, she’s exploring downtown Madison.
For years, Sabol has been taking trips to the Lake Wisconsin area, where Vintage Brewing Co. Sauk Prairie, Devil’s Lake State Park and boating to sand bars are musts.
“Anything that gets me outside are my primary go-to spots,” she said.
How did Karina Sabol do in gymnastics?
Sabol, 24, started gymnastics at age 5, though her older sisters taught her a thing or two ahead of time, she said. She trained at Madtown Twisters in Madison from around age 6 through high school.
From a pretty young age, she said, she knew she wanted to take her gymnastics career as far as it could go.
During high school, Sabol was injured while doing the uneven bars — which she called the most impactful event of her life. But, she was able to come back from that and competed for UW-Whitewater.
Her accolades for floor exercise included National Collegiate Gymnastics Association All-America, the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association first team All-America, the NCGA West All-Championship Team, Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference/NCGA West Regional champion (All-WIAC) and first team All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, among others. She was also honored for her academics, including WCGA Scholastic All-America.
Why did Karina Sabol apply for ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’?
When Sabol’s friend suggested last year that the two of them should apply for “Love Island,” Sabol thought the dating show that she had been learning about on the “Discover Ag” podcast would be “more of a fit.'”
That would, of course, be “Farmer Wants a Wife.”
Sabol applied for “FWAW” last summer, went through the casting process, got selected for the show and left for filming around September.
What is Karina Sabol’s dating history?
After dating on-and-off during college, Sabol turned to dating apps when she returned to Madison post-grad. But, she found that those were not really her vibe and “very surface-level.”
While she met some prospects through mutual friends, nothing stuck.
Enter: “FWAW.”
Who is the farmer Karina Sabol is vying for?
Sabol and a handful of other daters will be attempting to wrangle the heart of Farmer J’Marick “Jay” Woods.
In addition to Woods, there’ll be three other farmers — Matt Warren, John Sansone and Colton Hendricks — each with a crop of daters looking to “leave behind city life for the charm of the country as they embark on an adventure that could change the course of their lives forever,” the network said in a news release.
Woods — who previously played football for Michigan and Duke — is a hay and cattle farmer from Florence, Alabama, Fox said.
His show bio said: “Despite not being initially perceived as a typical ‘cowboy,’ Jay grew up in the country of Alabama on his grandfather’s horse farm surrounded by family — farming, hunting, kayaking, fishing and anything else that kept him outdoors surrounded by animals. When Jay’s original dream of becoming a pro athlete while playing football at Duke was crushed due to an injury, he began to reflect on the times in his life that made him the happiest to determine his next steps. Choosing to return to his roots was easy, and he’s never looked back. While Jay felt pressure playing college football, it’s nothing compared to the massive pressure his mom’s been putting on him lately, asking about grandbabies!”
Woods is looking for a kind-hearted, refined and confident woman, who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty on the farm.
He graduated from Michigan in winter 2019 with a degree in kinesiology and got his master’s in management studies from Duke in spring 2021, according to his Duke bio.
It appears that Sabol and Woods have a heck of a lot in common (read about it here).
A preview of ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ Season 3
“As the ladies immerse themselves in the realities of farm life, some will blossom while some will head out to pasture, and only time will tell if they have the patience, spirit and adaptability required to be a farmer’s wife,” a Fox news release said.
During the journey, the farmers and their daters will travel to Alabama for a speed dating event, Tennessee for a country ball and Texas for an overnight camping mixer.
New this season: The final daters will bring their families back to the farms, where their loved ones will experience first-hand what it’s like living in the countryside.
Plus, there’s a new host: Kimberly Williams-Paisley, an actress, New York Times bestselling author, co-founder of The Store nonprofit and wife of country music superstar Brad Paisley.
The changeup comes after two seasons with Grammy Award-winning country star Jennifer Nettles at the helm.
RELATED: ‘Farmer Wants A Wife’ cast stops in Nashville to talk about why ‘country is cool again’ and what to expect on season 3
How to watch the ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ Season 3 premiere
The “FWAW” Season 3 premiere airs at 8 p.m. CT Thursday on Fox (and streams on Hulu the next day).