Three different Monroe cheesemakers won Best of Class honors.

Klondike Cheese Company of Monroe won two top awards. Cheesemaker Ron Bechtolt was the Best of Class winner in the Havarti class. Area cheesemakers took the top six spots in the competition. Klondike's Matt Erdley was the top winner in the Brick Muenster class, just edging out Buholzer.

Chalet Cheese Co-op cheesemaker Silvan Blum won the Baby Swiss Style class, as Chalet took four of the top seven spots.

Roth Kase USA Ltd. and its Team Gran Cru won the Swiss Style Cheese (Class 10) competition with its Petite Swiss.

Brodhead's Decatur Dairy, Inc., also was a winner, with Steve Stettler earning Best of Class honors in the Quesos Para Fundir division.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin also won the Super Bowl of the competition.

Twenty-four judges chose SarVecchio parmesan made by John Griffiths of Sartori Food Corp. as the top cheese among 1,360 entries. Griffiths was not at the contest, and Patrick Mugan, vice president of product innovation, didn't have time to call him before he was mobbed by reporters hungry for comment.

"It's a really great honor," Mugan said. It also could help business.

"People see the awards, and they will actually put (the cheese) in their mouth and taste the wonderful flavors," Mugan said.

"Classico," a hard goat's milk cheese made by Team TFI One, a group of workers from Tumalo Farms in Bend, Ore., took second place. Third went to a medium cheddar made by Pat Whalen at McCadam Cheese in Chateaugay, N.Y. McCadam cheese maker Ken Root took the top honor in 2007.

That win helped boost McCadam's sales, although how much is tough to say because the cheese won awards in other contests, too, said Doug DiMento, spokesman for Agri-Mark, the farmer cooperative that owns the McCadam brand.

"We're real excited to win a national competition like that," DiMento said, adding that it boosts morale among farmers and salespeople as well as cheesemakers. "It makes a tangible difference in our marketing, which helps our sales."

The Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association hosts the national and world competitions in alternate years. Cheese makers generally do not attend. This year's winners will receive their awards April 23 at the Wisconsin Cheese Industry Conference in La Crosse, Wis.

Thursday, judges in white coats and hats rotated among half a dozen tables, evaluating 60 cheeses that had already been named the best in their categories. Judges pull a plug from each cheese, smell it and roll it in their fingers to test its texture before tasting it. But there's no eating - judges spit out the samples when done.

That's largely a measure of self-preservation. During preliminary rounds, judges can sample 150 or more cheeses.

"You cannot ingest that much cheese," said Steve Ehlers, a judge and co-owner of Larry's Market in Milwaukee. He noted that one pair of judges tasted 35 pepper cheeses.

"You do that, and you're done," said Ehlers, who had an easier time judging the retail packaging division.

The three-day competition included 60 categories of cheese, two categories of butter - salted and unsalted - and two presentation categories. Entries ranged from 2 ounces of soft-ripened cheese to 200-pound blocks of Swiss.

The 60 cheese finalists will be auctioned at the cheese industry conference in April. About six years ago, someone paid $20,000 for a 40-pound block of cheddar, WCMA executive director John Umhoefer said. But the auction usually brings in about $60,000 to pay for the contest and continuing education for cheese makers.

Following is a list of all of the area placers in the 2009 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest:

Class 4: Cheddar, Aged 1-2 Years>

Second place: Roger Larson, Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op, Monroe (English Hollow cheddar)

Class 6: Bandaged Cheddar>

13th place: Geissbuhler, Brunkow Cheese of Wisconsin, Darlington (Avondale Truckle bandaged cheddar)

Class 8: Monterey Jack>

13th place: Jeff Wideman, Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op, Monroe

Class 9: Marbled Curd Cheese>

Sixth place: Production Team 1, Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op, Monroe (Irish Harp marbled cheddar)

Class 10: Swiss Style Cheese>

Best of Class: Team Gran Cru, Roth Kase USA Ltd., Monroe (Petite Swiss); Third place: Silvan Blum, Chalet Cheese Co-op, Monroe (Swiss wheel)

Class 17: Baby Swiss Style>

Best of Class: Silvan Blum, Chalet Cheese Co-op, Monroe; Third place: Neal Schwartz, Chalet Cheese Co-op, Monroe; Fifth place: Donald Johnson, Chalet Cheese Co-op, Monroe; Seventh place: Jamie Fahrney, Chalet Cheese Co-op, Monroe

Class 18: Feta >

Second place: Ron Buholzer, Klondike Cheese Company, Monroe

Class 20: Havarti>

Best of Class: Ron Bechtolt, Klondike Cheese Company, Monroe; Second place: Decatur Team 1, Decatur Dairy, Inc., Brodhead; Third place: Team Edelweiss, Edelweiss Creamery, Monticello; Fourth place: Decatur Team 2, Decatur Dairy, Inc., Brodhead; Fifth place: Steve Stettler, Decatur Dairy, Inc., Brodhead; Sixth place: Luke Buholzer, Klondike Cheese Company, Monroe

Class 21: Havarti, Flavored>

Third place: Decatur Team 1, Decatur Dairy, Inc., Brodhead; Fourth place: Steve Stettler, Decatur Dairy, Inc., Brodhead

Class 27: Brick, Muenster>

Best of Class: Matt Erdley, Klondike Cheese Company, Monroe; Second place: Ron Buholzer, Klondike Cheese Company, Monroe; Third place, Team Edelweiss, Edelweiss Creamery, Monticello; Fourth place: Team Z Cheez North, Zimmerman Cheese, Wiota

Class 29: Edam, Gouda>

Second place: Team Edelweiss, Edelweiss Creamery, Monticello

Class 30: Quesos Frescos >

Second place: Paul Ruefer, Swiss Heritage Cheese, Inc., Monticello; Third place: Team Two, Wisconsin Cheese Group, Monroe; Fourth place: Team Gran Cru, Roth Kase USA Ltd., Monroe; Fifth place: Luke Hansen, Swiss Heritage Cheese, Inc., Monticello

Class 31: Quesos Para Fundir>

Best in Class: Steve Settler, Decatur Dairy, Inc., Brodhead; Sixth place: Hans Lehner, Valley View Cheese, South Wayne; Seventh place: Jon Jay Lewis, Valley View Cheese, South Wayne

Class 32: Smear Ripened Cheeses>

Second place: Team Gran Cru, Roth Kase USA Ltd., Monroe

Class 34: Pepper Flavored Cheeses>

Fourth place: Shawn Thorp, Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op, Monroe

Class 38: Flavored Cheeses w/ Sweet or Dessert Condiments>

Second place: Andrew Rufener, Swiss Heritage Cheese, Inc., Monticello

Class 39: Smoked Cheeses>

Second place: Team Gran Cru, Roth Kase USA Ltd., Monroe

Class 41: Open Class Semi-Soft Cheeses>

Third place: Geissbuhler, Brunkow Cheese of Wisconsin, Darlington

Class 45: Spreadable Cheeses>

Seventh place: Kelly Longseth, Family Fresh Pack, LLC, Belleville

Class 64: Retail Packaging>

Fourth place: Packaging Team 2, Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op, Monroe

Class 65: Open Class Shredded Cheese>

Fourth place: Bob Bobak, Roth Kase for VOD Gourmet, Monroe