Winfield has been kind to 17-year-old Cody Kilby

In 1996, Kilby won the Walnut Valley mandolin contest and was the third-place flatpick winner.

Last year, Kilby again took second in the flatpicking contest.

This weekend, Kilby racked up a third-place finish in the banjo contest and was named the National Flatpick Guitar champion.

For his banjo finish, Kilby took home a Deering Banjo Company Deluxe. For winning the flatpick contest, he chose a Collins D2H guitar.

After high school, Kilby hopes to attend the Berklee School of Music in Boston and major in jazz guitar.

Another young competitor took second in the flatpick contest. Carl Miner, 16, of Medford, Ore., has been playing for close to 10 years. This is his fourth trip to Winfield. Miner chose a Vintage Series OM-28VR from Martin Guitars.

A second-place finisher in 1982, Robin Kessinger of St. Albans, W.Va., took the third-place spot in the flatpick contest. Kessinger has placed in the contest's top 5 nine times.

A guitar teacher with two grown sons, Kessinger often performs and conducts workshops. He won a Dan Crary Signature Model from Taylor guitars.

Banjo

Tennessee and Georgia are the homes of the top finishers in the National Bluegrass Banjo Contest.

Carl "Sonny" Smith of Sevierville, Tenn., had been the third-place winner in 1992 and the second-place winner last year. His back-up player for all contests is his friend Jeff Haley. Smith chose an OME Megatone Bluegrass Banjo as his prize for taking first this year.

Winning a Deering Calico Custom Banjo, Barry Palmer of Cleveland, Ga., took second place in the contest. Palmer has been in the top five finishers for five of the last eight years, winning third place in 1996.

A pharmacist who has been playing for 24 years, Palmer plays brass, woodwind and string instruments.

Mandolin

Bruce Graybill of Pleasant Hill, Mo., bought his first mandolin at the Walnut Valley Festival in 1982 and has been playing since then. This year, he won the Walnut Valley Mandolin Contest and took home a Gibson F5-G Carved Top Mandolin.

Graybill placed third in the contest in 1995. An active member of the Classical Mandolin Society of America, he sometimes plays with the band Spontaneous Combustion.

Kelly Lancaster of Houston won $500 for his second-place finish. A self-proclaimed "starving musician," Lancaster said a highlight of his career was playing a show with Willie Nelson.

In 1990 and 1991, Lancaster won second and third place in the contest. He was the second-place flatpick winner in 1988.

Winning the $250 third-place prize was Adam Wright of Hawesville, Ky., a freshman music student at Volunteer State College. Wright has been coming to the festival for four years.

Fiddle

A first-time competitor won the Walnut Valley Old-Time Fiddle Contest over 17 contestants from 14 states.

Cathy Pearson of Russell, Pa., came to Winfield for the first time to support her husband, a mandolin competitor. Pearson took home a Sam Ray Compton Fiddle for her efforts.

A recent college graduate with a degree in nursing, Pearson spends her time giving fiddle lessons and entering some contests along the East Coast.

A junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Jason Shaw has been coming to Winfield for eight years. He adds a second-place finish in the fiddle contest to an impressive resume: third-place fiddle in 1990, first-place fiddle in 1991, first place in flatpicking in 1993.

Shaw is studying Forestry, Fish and Wildlife Management. He won $175.

Sandra Wong of Chimayo, N.M., placed third in the competition. Wong has studied violin since she was seven but got hooked on fiddling while in college. Besides teaching at a Montessori school and coaching a youth symphony, Wong owns a travel agency.

Hammered dulcimer

Last year's second-place finisher won the National Hammer Dulcimer Championship and walked away with a Russell Cook Edition Master Works Custom Chromatic dulcimer.

Mark Wade, Marysville, Ohio, is a senior music education major at Ohio Wesleyan College, Delaware, Ohio. He also plays trumpet and piano and plans to pursue his master's degree in trumpet performance. Wade also plays guitar, pennywhistle, banjo and organ.

Scott Evan Freeman of Lafayette, Ind., was the second-place winner in 1996 and repeated the feat this year. Freeman teaches dulcimer to children at Indianapolis Children's Museum. He has been playing for five years.

Freeman won an R.L. Tack and Son 15-15 Fully Chromatic hammered dulcimer.

A registered nurse from Thornton, Colo., finished third in the contest. Tina Gugeler chose an XRD Three-Octave dulcimer made by the Round Family Dulcimer Co.