HOW TO WIN A WATERMELON EATING CONTEST
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

PHOTO BY JASON COX/THE LEADER Competitors in the girls' 4-5-year-old division of the annual watermelon eating contest chow down as the race begins Wednesday at the Steuben County Fairgrounds.

BATH - - Four-year-old McKinley Gregg began her assault on a slice of watermelon with a large chomp, then settled in for the long haul with a series of wellplaced nibbles.

Her tactics paid off as the 2007 Steuben County Fair opened its annual watermelon eating contest Wednesday. Gregg finished first in her 4-5-year-old class of girls (boys compete in their own classes) and won a "Read Along" set of books and CD, plus a coloring book, compliments of sponsor P & C Foods.

It was the first-ever watermelon eating contest for Gregg, a resident of Massachusetts who is visiting her relatives, Barbara and Bob Gregg of Hammondsport. "I don't like the seeds very well," she said after the competition. Asked if she had swallowed any, she replied, "I think."

The question of how to deal with seeds is probably on the mind of just about every watermelon eating contest competitor. Seven-year-old Chelsea Hernandez, who won the girls' 6-7-year-old division, is comfortable swallowing the white seeds.

PHOTO BY JASON COX/THE LEADER Pictured at left, Trevor Sly, 4, eats watermelon during Wednesday's watermelon eating contest at the Steuben County Fair.

"Only the black seeds," she said when asked which seeds need propelling.

Hernandez, a 7-year-old New Jersey native, attends the county fair on a regular basis, visiting her aunt, Aranka Gonzalez of Prattsburgh. Her grandmother, Kathy Lorincz, said the family enjoys the rural peacefulness of Steuben County in the summer.

"It's quiet, it's slow paced. Compared to Jersey," her grandmother said.

Hernandez said she competed in the watermelon eating contest the previous two years and this is her first victory. "I feel really good," she said. "I just stuffed my face in it."

The annual watermelon eating contest features 10 ageand gender-based divisions. As Hernandez reflected on her victory the sounds of the boys' 6-7-year-old division could be heard in the background. "Faster! Faster," parents and coaches chanted.

It's the sort of competition that encourages great watermelon eaters to return every year to Steuben County. "I've been here was I was 2 and 1," recalled 4-year-old McKinley Gregg. She couldn't remember what happened the year she was 3, but she knows what's going to happen next year, when she's 5.

"I'll be back," she said.