Recap: Jake Winslow Ends the Streak at the 2022 National Championship

For the first time since the Council began sanctioning events, Michael Salomone did not win the National Pineapple Championship. In front of a hometown San Diego crowd on September 17, 2022, California's Jake Winslow finished in 0:51 to Salomone's 0:52 — a six-tenths-of-a-second margin that remains the closest finish in Championship history.

It was not, by any measure, a fluke. Winslow had been closing the gap on Salomone for a full season, and judges scored his cut cleanliness as flawless. 'He didn't beat me on speed alone,' Salomone said afterward. 'He beat me on a Tuesday-level cut on a Saturday final. That's what separates good from great, and today, he was greater.'

The result stands as the only blemish on what is otherwise a perfect run: through five seasons and ten sanctioned events, it remains the single time Michael Salomone has finished worse than second place anywhere. Texas's Priya Natarajan took third, with Hawaii's Hana Kahale fourth in her first mainland Championship appearance.