Monday, August 15th, 2022
Wide World of Gluttony
Area competitors chow down at fair's hot dog-eating contest
By Joseph Gilroy
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Luther Slaven stuffs his face with hot dogs during the 9-15 year old division of the hotdog eating contest.
CELINA - On Sunday 35 contestants across four divisions gave their best Joey Chestnut renditions in the first annual Mercer County Fair hot dog eating contest on Sunday.
When the smoked cleared Will Faller, Fort Recovery, took the age 9-15 group, Alex Nighthorse, won the age 16-18 and Eddie Jackson, Chattanooga, Ohio, stood tall to win the age 18 and up group. Meanwhile, all four entrants in the age 1-8 group were announced as winners as the
crowd cheered on contestants throughout the event as they munched down their Bar-S hot dogs as fast as humanly possible.
For their victory, the winners all were given $15 food vouchers as a reward.
Valarie Slaven said she had a blast during the age 1-8 kids contest. She and Macy Uhlenake out ate Will Young and Jack Uhlenake on a technicality. Both boys ate the hot dogs while leaving the bun, thus not completely eating all of their food. In the end the entire group was crowned as winners.
"I just tried eating as fast as I could. It was a lot of fun," Slaven said. "I will probably get french fries (with the food voucher). French fries are my favorite snack to get at the fair and my sister likes them too, so I will share them with her too."
There was no common theme as to how the winners prepared to compete in the contest. Some like Faller used a little bit of technique while others such as Jackson ate a colossal breakfast at Bob Evans just a few hours before finding his way into the hot dog eating contest.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Eddie Jackson, 63, wins the 18+ year old division of the Mercer County Fair's hot dog eating contest with a time of 2 minutes 1 second.
"I didn't have any preparation for this ahead of time," Jackson said. "I passed the tent and saw they were having the contest and since I like to eat I decided to go ahead and enter."
Jackson scarfed down his five hot dogs in an impressive two minutes and five seconds.
Jackson may have gotten to experience the thrill of the victory, but it was his grandchildren who enjoyed the sweet spoils of the victory. They were the lucky recipients of Jackson's food voucher.
"I can't eat anymore," he chuckled. "I'm done for the day, so I guess the family will use the food tickets."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Rosalie Haro, 16, wins the 16-18 year old division of the hot dog eating contest with a time of 2 minutes 28 seconds.
Faller, a Fort Recovery seventh-grader, fell somewhere in the middle of where Jackson was and falling back on strategic means.
"I never knew this existed before today," he laughed. "I just found out and thought it sounded like a fun time and decided to give it a shot.
"My strategy at first was to just eat it as fast as I could," he added. "Then I found out the hot dogs were harder to get them down than what I had expected them to be, so I started dipping them in the water and that is what really helped me to get them down."
Nighthorse came all the way from Indiana to visit his grandma who lives in Celina and decided to go to the fair while he was in town. He said he and his brother, Jacob decided to give it a shot, even though neither were particularly fond of the hot dogs themselves.
"Well, I signed Jacob up even though he didn't want to," Alex said. "I just ate them as fast as I could and tried to ignore the taste of them. They were really cold and I would have liked them to be a little more done."
Alex may have given Jacob the nudge to enter the contest, but he couldn't give him the enthusiasm. Jacob bowed out after just a few bites of his first hot dog.
"It was not what I was expecting at all," he pleaded. "They were cold to start with and honestly it is a lot harder to eat them down with all that bun than what you might think. I saw the other kids soaking the buns in the water, but that's gross."
At least one of the winners plan to defend their crown next year. Faller says he likely will be back next fair season and will try to improve on his time.
"Why not," Faller asked. "It was fun and you also get free food if you win. I'm not sure if I will use it today or sometime later in the week, but I will definitely get something good with it."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Jack Uhlenhake competes in the 1-8 year old division of the Mercer County Fair's hot dog eating contest.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
A contestant quickly devours his four hotdogs during a hot dog eating contest at the Fairgrounds.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
A contestant takes a bite of hotdog during a hot dog eating contest at the Mercer County Fair.
