22 students compete to be Kosher King

Kate Lewanowicz
Staff Writer

Twenty-two students competed for the “Kosher King” trophy yesterday in a kosher hot dog eating contest hosted by Alpha Epsilon Pi.

The students, who competed in teams of two, represented the VCU baseball club, honors fraternities and various other fraternities and sororities. Winners received a trophy topped with a gold hot dog statuette, and event proceeds were donated to the charity of their choice.

Five hundred hot dogs were brought in by City Dogs for the event. These were devoured in three- and five-minute rounds of hot dog eating, with men and women competing separately.

During his participation in the event year after year, Joe Wiener has seen between 1200-1300 hot dogs. Wiener (whose name, coincidentally, is pronounced exactly as it looks) helped run this year’s event.

Wiener recounted this favorite moment from contests past.

“It had to be seeing my friend eat 25 hot dogs last year,” he said. “I thought he would stop at some point. I just thought it was going to be over, but he just kept going, getting redder and redder.”

Just in case of any accidents, an ambulance was parked by the event.

“Luckily we’ve never had to use it,” said Steven Flick, founder of the event and 2009 VCU graduate.

Inspired by the annual Nathan’s hot dog eating contest in New York, the fraternity started its contest four years ago to raise money for charity. A hot dog eating contest is “something everybody knows about and can connect with,” Flick said.

“Greek life here is getting stronger and we figured it was a great opportunity to bring everyone together to raise money for great causes.”

Abby Haverstick, a VCU junior, returned to the hot dog eating competition this year to win for the second time. Last year she ate 18 hot dogs.

“I just wanted to get the trophy again,” she said. “I had fun last year, too.”

Her partner Taylor Thompson, a freshman, jumped in to the competition at the last minute, but tried to prepare herself for the experience.

“It was my first time and I tried to prepare,” she said. “I watched YouTube videos and stuff, but I wasn’t really prepared.”

“I just tried to breath and swallow them whole toward the end,” she said. Even though she looked a little bit queasy toward the end of her three-minute spree, Thompson reassured that she felt just fine. Together she and Haverstick ate 26 hot dogs.

Nathan Galloway, a junior at VCU, has participated in the hot dog eating contest for two years.

“It’s always a fun event. Everybody gets unified,” he said. “It’s always a funny thing to watch.” Galloway plans to return to the competition again next year.

Despite having just eaten 20 hot dogs, Galloway mentioned possibly visiting a barbecue going on down the street in order to get a cheeseburger.

“But I might need to wait a little longer before I do that,” he said.