"Challenge entries will be NEW work; NOT something posted previously in the galleries or entered into other challenges or competitions....But it must not have seen the light of day prior to a challenge.)"      your words not mine. And...
"Any entry posted in any Gallery other than the Challenge Entry Page before the end of the Voting Deadline (usually 3 days after the image entry deadline) WILL be disqualified!!!!! If an entry has been included in the voting and is then found to have been posted elsewhere before the completion of voting, it will be removed and the voting adjusted accordingly. "

Hell, what do I care, I wouldn't have won regardless. But if I were any of the #2's, a blatant violation of the rules winning would piss me off pretty good.

So by simply re-rendering a previous render and cropping out a section constitutes as a NEW work. I'll have to remember that for the next contest.