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Anoka teacher grows record-setting pumpkin; wins CA competition

Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Anoka, won the contest Monday with a pumpkin weighing in at 2,560.

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — An Anoka teacher took home a blue ribbon and thousands of dollars in prize money after setting a new U.S. record for heaviest pumpkin at the 49th Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in California.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Anoka, won the contest with a pumpkin weighing in at 2,560 pounds — four pounds heavier than a pumpkin grown in New York, that just last week, set the record.

Gienger, who also won the competition in 2020, topped 2021's champion this year by almost 400 pounds.

“Minnesota has a great midyear, but our spring in our parts is really, really tough. So to do it in Minnesota, it just shouldn’t happen," Gienger said. "It’s like winning the Tour de France on a big wheel. You know, you can only hope, but it worked.”

According to the U.S.' Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, the contest offers the winner $9 per pound and a "total mega-prize" of $30,000 for setting a new world record. 

Guinness World Records shows that title is currently held by an Italian grower, whose squash weighed in at 2,702 pounds in 2021.

   

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