EAU CLAIRE — Experience prevailed as Rick “Pellet Gun” Krause, 63, of Sanders, Arizona captured his 17th victory as the 2017 International Cherry Pit Spitting Champion at Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm, Eau Claire.

“Pellet Gun” shot his pit 57-feet-11 to retain his title as International Champion.

Second-place honors went to Paul Marek, 48, Traverse City.

Of the four Mareks qualified to spit in the afternoon contests, three found their way into the winner’s circle. Along with their father, Alex, 8, and Austin, 5, each won their respective youth age group divisions with pit spit distances of 20-9 (6-8 year olds) and 11-6.5 (5 and under).

Matriarch Sarah Marek was unable to muster the bluster to beat Marlene “Machine Gun” Krause, who took top honors in the Women’s Competition with a powerful propulsion of 39-4.5 for her eighth win.

Niles’ Danielle Flenar was second with a spit of 36-7.

“Machine Gun,” wife of “Pellet Gun,” and her daughter, Marcella Spencer, 29, of Sanders, were both among the afternoon qualified contenders.

Reid Gillis, 11, of Granger Indiana, spat 23-7.5 to become the top spitter in the 9-12-year-old division.

While the Krause, Bartz and Lessard names are familiar in the world of cherry pit spitting, some other names dominated the scoreboard of qualified spitters.

Family names, Flenar and Marek occurred four times each and Metz and Hester five times each.

Ten-year-old Joshua Hester, 10, of Coloma, was even among the contenders for the overall championship. His spit of was 33-0.5 narrowly bettered his father, Kevin Hester’s best spit of 32-9.5. Joshua was the 2016 9-12-year-old division winner.

Madeline Schrock, of St. Joseph, opened the festivities with the National Anthem and Pure International Miss Michigan Kayla Flenar, of Niles, initiated the Official Cherry Pit Spitting Court with first official spit, spat at a distance of 13-10.