Records broken at charity hot dog eating contest

Matt Leonard
Staff Writer

Hot dogs were scarfed down at an incredible pace Friday night as wolf-like bites led to a record breaking performance at the Alpha Epsilon Pi’s seventh annual hot dog eating contest.

In the Commons, John Schwartz, a senior business major, consumed 28 hot dogs in five minutes, breaking the previous record for the AEPi hot dog contest by one hot dog. Schwartz’s partner, Corey Cosgrove, a senior homeland security and emergency preparedness major, devoured 12 more hot dogs for a total of 40 hot dogs, which is also a team record.

All the money raised at the event went to Save a Child’s Heart, an Israeli charity dedicated to helping children with heart disease. Alpha Epsilon Pi’s national organization has pledged to donate $100,000 to seven charities over seven years for a total of $700,000.

Alpha Epsilon Pi spent approximately $1,000 dollars on the event. Unleashed Hot Dogs donated over a hundred hot dogs to the contest.

The large crowd in attendance at the hot dog eating contest also found a number of other attractions. Games such as the “Corn Dog Hole” and the “Hot Dog Ring Toss” were available to play for a few dollars. There was also a raffle for a Chromecast Google TV.

The hot dog eating contest was divided into two rounds: a three minute and a five minute round, with one member from each team competing in each round. There were 13 teams competing this year. The rounds were further divided into women’s three and five minute rounds and men’s.

The winner of the women’s trophy was a team representing Sigma Sigma Sigma who ate 25 hot dogs.

Festivities began with the unveiling of the trophies and a ceremonial first bite followed by “let the feast begin,” announced after the bite was taken.

“I feel like death and I’m nauseous,” said Allyssa King, a sophomore business chain and supply management major. “And they were cold, so that was no fun.”

Some students participating in the event had been anticipating the day for months.

“We’ve been training for months,” said Jacob Echard a sophomore accounting major. “We would go to Shafer and eat as much as possible three times a day.”

“We started planning a couple months ago,” said Scott Porshe, the president of Alpha Epsilon Pi.