MADISON, Wis. — Greg Hart was in light spirits, considering that he had just passed a torch to a man 18 years his junior, 65 feet above the Great Outdoor Games timber stage. When he and Brian Bartow finally got around to descending the towering Tree Topping poles, Hart arrived at the obligatory post-match TV interview wearing a wig of dark, Jerry Garcia-esque curls.

"As you can see," Hart cracked to the crowd, "I want to be more like Brian."

Two weeks ago, though, Bartow had most of his locks lopped off. All that remained was buzzed up top, buzzed on the sides and allowed to flow down the back as a curly mop, all encircled in a nappy white sweatband.

"He needs to shave a little off the sides," Bartow said. "Mullets are coming back."

Actually, the problem for Hart and the other Tree Topping competitors isn't that they want to be more like Brian. It's that Brian Bartow, who has for years been a prodigious tree climber, has become more like Hart, who has two golds and two silvers in the event. A season of sawing blocks in his backyard has made Bartow's sawing, once a liability, look more like a strength.

	Greg Hart was all smiles after the Tree Topping finals, even though he was bested by Brian Bartow.

The combination of his speed and improved sawing allowed Bartow to turn in a Great Outdoor Games record time of 35.160 seconds in the gold medal round, beating Hart's 36.685 seconds. Before this year, Bartow had never broken 41 seconds in the event and had settled for bronze the last two years. Twice on Friday he broke 37 seconds.

"I knew this was coming, we all did," Hart said. "World speed climber turned tree-topper? Dangerous thing, right?

"I've got no problem being beat by Brian. He's the most natural speed climber that there's ever been."

Hart was still the faster sawyer in the final. The Maple Ridge, British Columbia, resident had just tied off when Bartow began decapitating the block.

But the young decathlete from Grants Pass, Ore., was just swift enough to keep the lead he built with his climbing.

"In this event it is a little scary when the guy gets a head start on you," Bartow said.

Stewart, for one, said his problem was focus once he got to the top. He spends May through October performing in three lumberjack shows a day on Grouse Mountain in Vancouver, which is terrific for his conditioning, except it doesn't include sawing. It was his sawing technique that torpedoed him in his semifinal against Bartow, which Bartow won 36.316 seconds to 41.128 seconds.

"You can only try so hard, because if you press too hard on the saw it buckles," Stewart said. "You try to make up time, but the best thing to do is calm down, just let the saw do its work. But I didn't. It's kind of a rookie mistake, especially with all the experience I have, more than Brian."

In the bronze medal round, Stewart was swift enough to recover from a slip on the climb to top Bryan Schulz handily, 41.11 seconds to 1.00.68. Schulz was slow on the saw and took a while coming down, stopping midway to finish catching his breath. The bronze medal was Stewart's third in the event, to go with a gold and a silver.

But unless Stewart or another competitor can make huge vertical strides in the next year, Bartow seems poised to remain in the scary groove he has found. About the only thing unlikely to return is that greaser haircut.

"I thought it would be cool to look like an ass on national TV, bring back the mullet," Bartow said. "It'll be gone right after the games."

Tree Toppings Final Standings

1 Brian Bartow
2 Greg Hart
3 Wade Stewart
4 Brian Schulz
5 Guy German
6 Steve Bartow
7 Chris Hughes
8 Brian Linville

Results (By Round)

Final Round
Brian Bartow, 0:35. 160 def. Greg Hart, 0:36.685

Consolation Round
Wade Stewart, 0:41.114 def. Bryan Schutz, 1:00. 685

Semi-Final Round
Greg Hart, 0:39..225 def. Bryan Schutz, 1:00.85
Brian Bartow, 0;36.318 def. Wade Stewart 0:41.128

Quarter-Final Round
Greg Hart 0:39.700 def. Brian Linville 1;05.525
Brian Schulz 0:49.625 def. Guy German 0:55.257
Wade Stewart 0:41.185 def. Chris Hughes 1:01.612
Brian Bartow 0:44.300 def. Steve Bartow 0:57.040