'Upset' At The International Pit-Spitting Contest

EAU CLAIRE (WWJ/AP)  - A big upset at the annual International Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship in Southwest Michigan Saturday. For the first time in 20 years, the winner was not named Krause or Lessard.

Ronn Matt of Chicago won the competition by spitting a pit 69-feet at Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm near Eau Claire, just north of the Indiana border.

Lisa Lynch, who traveled from Colorado for the event, spit her pit 40 feet to win the women's division.

"I'm not a pro pit-spitter," laughed Lynch."So, I'm totally surprised I won," she told WWJ.

"Just tried to put as much air behind it as I could, I almost swallowed the pit the first time," she said.

Lynch chalks the win up to beginners luck... and says she barely practiced.

Members of the Krause and Lessard families have dominated the event since 1992.

Brian "Young Gun" Krause of Dimondale holds the world record of more than 93 feet, and has won the past two years, but finished 5th in Saturday's competition.