Lehi man's educated guesses are good enough to win contest

Jay Hafen is an employment counselor for the Utah Department of Workforce Services in Utah County.

The Lehi man is also the first-place winner in the Deseret News' Top 10 Stories of 1999 Contest, which drew more than 500 entries.Hafen, 27, most closely matched the paper's editors in selecting and ranking the top 10 news stories in Utah last year. Eight of his picks were among the editors' top 10, and four of his picks matched the editors' rankings exactly.

"I just tried to do the educated guess and figure out which stories were most important to me, which ones I paid the most attention to," he said.

Hafen wins $100 in gift certificates to the ZCMI Center mall plus a copy of "Through our eyes," a book that chronicles 150 years of history as seen through the eyes of Deseret News writers and editors.

Three second-place prizes -- $50 in gift certificates plus a copy of "Through our eyes" -- go to Brian Burton of Louisville, Ky.; Laura Dickison of Cedar City; and Chris Thomas of Salt Lake City.

Eleven third-place prizes -- a copy of the book "Salt Lake City's Tornado of '99" -- goes to Debbie Edwards of Sandy, Norma Evans of West Valley City, Hoang Ha of Salt Lake City, James Harris of Salt Lake City, Glen Leonard of Farmington, Karen Leonard of Farmington, Phyllis Marston of Salt Lake City, Torrey Morrill of Layton, Alan A. Rawley of Bountiful, Eric Robinson of Sandy, and Joshua Tenney of Orem.