Faces in the Crowd
John Kulsa
SEATTLE
Kulsa, 24, a swingback, led the Seattle Seahammers to a breathless 6-5 defeat of three-time defending champ Club Puck at the underwater hockey national championships, in Champaign, Ill. Playing in a seven-foot-deep Olympic-sized pool, he anchored the Seahammer defense, which thwarted Puck's second-half comeback from a four-goal deficit.
Mandy Mankin
GILLETTE, WYO.
Mankin, a junior-to-be on the Wyoming women's rodeo team, led the Cowgirls to their third title in four years at the collegiate championships. A two-time Wyoming high school girls' all-around champion, she upended a barrel during her final barrel-racing run but recovered strongly to secure the win over runner-up Southwest Oklahoma State.
Jerry Shelton
TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
Shelton, a senior third baseman on the Alabama baseball team, broke the NCAA career hit-by-pitch record when he was beaned for the 52nd time, by Auburn's John Powell, who is the SEC's career strikeout leader. Shelton tied an NCAA single-game mark last year when he was hit four times in five at bats against Morehead State.
Ernest Corpus
LULING, TEXAS
Ernest, 7, surpassed all expectorations to win the youth (nine-and-under) division at the World Championship Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest, in Luling. He defeated 20 other competitors by launching his seed 18'8". The world record is held by Luling's Lee Wheelis, who in 1989, as a 44-year-old, fired a seed 68'9".
Steve Cavalin
SANTA ROSA, CALIF.
Cavalin, 34, a car salesman, used a roundhouse-backhand combination to knock Mike Behler off the beam in the finals of the 27th World Pillowfighting Championships, in Kenwood, Calif. The 6'8" defending champ won seven best-of-three-falls matches without being knocked from the beam, which was suspended four feet above a mud pit.
Gail Redmond
RENO
Redmond, 39, aboard Buster, a 7-year-old male dromedary, beat a field of 30 other camel jockeys to repeat as champ at the Virginia City (Nev.) International Camel Races. Riding the same mount on the same 250-yard course in 1991, she was thrown after crossing the finish line first and was hospitalized with a back injury.
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MICHAEL SIEGEL
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RON FRANSCELL
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FRANK COUCH
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BOB DAEMMRICH
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JOHN BURGESS
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MARCIO SANCHEZ