Montpelier, Vt. ? They’ve worn their sneakers while mowing the lawn. They’ve left them outside in the rain, and they’ve dragged them through the mud.

And on Tuesday, contestants from as far away as Alaska attempted to overwhelm judges with their foul-smelling sneakers in the annual rotten sneaker contest.

One child even sang a rap song about the shoes his father makes him keep on the fire escape.

But in the end it was 9-year-old Danny Denault of New Milford, Conn., who won the respect of the panel’s sniffers and the top prize, a $500 savings bond.

A previous winner wore the same pair of socks for three months in an attempt to take top honors.

Denault’s secret to victory?

“The cow pies,” said Denault, who helps out on his baby-sitter’s dairy farm. “They’re just hard to avoid. They’re everywhere.”

Leading the panel of sniffers was George Aldrich, who has conducted more than 700 smell tests for NASA space shuttle missions. Contestants also were evaluated by judges in categories ranging from “tongues and toes” to “overall condition and soles.”

The rotten sneaker contest began more than 25 years ago. Odor-Eaters later decided to sponsor the event, crowning Montpelier “the rotten sneaker capital of the world.”

“We’ve worked hard to earn that distinction,” said Mayor Chuck Karparis, a contest judge who himself once competed.

Local winner Sam Kessler, 10, devoted months to preparing for the contest.

“He’s worked really hard on these shoes,” said his mother, Tess. “He wears them constantly.”

Sam’s advice to future contestants: “Just wear them a lot. And drag them when you ride bikes.”

Still, there are limits to what contestants can do to try to win. The judges said they still remember the contestant who later confessed to storing her sneakers with “beaver guts.” She was disqualified.

“It’s supposed to be ‘raw talent,”‘ Aldrich explained.